Members of the Kwara State Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria (ESSPIN) have commended the Kwara state government policy for sustaining the Education Reformation Agenda (ERA) tagged "Every Child Counts".

The team leader of ESSPIN in the state, Mr. James Fadokun who gave the commendation during an advocacy visit to the Head of Service (HoS) in her office said the Education Policy of the State Government assisted them in charting a road-map for effective footing of ESSPIN programme in the state.

He informed HoS that the programme would round up by July this year after series of intervention programmes recorded in the education sector of the state since 2008 stating that ESSPIN programme formally ended in 2014 and was later extended for two years after considering the numerous achievements, plans and structures put in place.

Among the intervention programmes mentioned by the team leader of ESSPIN in the state were: Introduction of Strategic Plan, Education Quality Assurance ( EQA), Education Reformation Agenda ( ERA) "Every Child Counts", Community Engagement, Classroom Infrastructural Development, Rural Teacher Housing Scheme, Educational Management Information System (EMIS) and Quarterly Monitoring Reports/Schools Improvement Reports.

Fadokun noted that as a result of the sustained educational policy of the state, ESSPIN gave 100% education support to the entire 1,448 Primary Schools in Kwara State in 2008 and later increased to 1,528 Primary Schools in 2015 coupled with 419 Junior Secondary Schools in the State.

He also noted that communities in Kwara state made a contribution of N367 million to School Infrastructural Development efforts stating that additional N73 million was released to fund education in the state by ESSPIN.

The team leader who hinted that the state would benefit in another Education Support Programme for another six years, projected for seven states, tagged "Educate a Child Programme Appeal" said the policy instrument that is working for the state needs to be sustained so that it can attract other international donor agencies.

While applauding the initiative of the Head of Service in revamping and repositioning the service, he pleaded with the state government to always meet up with the required special support.

Responding, the HoS said the state government was planning to create a Human Resource Database stating that it had also adopted MTSS plan since 2011 with assurance that the state government would do everything possible to sustain education policy instrument and maintain projects that ESSPIN had put in place in the state.