The Niger State Universal Basic Education Board (NSUBEB) has returned 224,879 out-of-school children to classrooms through Better Education Service Delivery for All (BASDA) from 2019 to date.

NSUBEB chairman, Sai’du Ibrahim, announced this at a news conference on Wednesday in Minna, saying that those returned were mostly girls and Almajira children.

He said the board paid N400 million as outstanding four months BASDA arrears to 400 local facilitators targeted at addressing issues out of school children in the state.

Mr Ibrahim said 87 technical staff of the board were trained to build their capacity on effective monitoring for better performance, as well as improve primary education in the state.

He said the board successfully paid the outstanding July salaries of teachers in Gbako and Shiroro local government areas. He added that the board was not owing any teacher in the state.

The chairman said Governor Abubakar Sani-Bello of the state approved payment of more than N2 billion for 2019, 2020 and 2021 backlog of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).

He said the board recently established 24 additional junior secondary schools across the three senatorial districts and primary schools, procuring and distributing weekly registers, diary, admission registers and chalk for schools across the state.

He added that the board recently reintroduced monthly payments of imprest to education secretaries and recruited teachers to fill the manpower gaps in some local government areas.

He also said plans were underway to establish modern science primary schools starting with four local government areas as the pilot.

Mr Ibrahim noted that the board would continue to prioritise staff welfare through training and retraining for better performance, adding that all pending issues bordering the board had been addressed.

(NAN)