Barrister Lanre Nuhu Daibu is the Chairman, Kwara State Universal Basic Education Board (KWSUBEB). He was recently nominated as the best SUBEB Chairman in the North-central states. In this interview with UMAR BAYO ABDULWAHAB, the KWSUBEB boss speaks on the free education programmes of the state government, success recorded by his board and projections for 2013. Excerpts:

Extent of free education in Kwara

I must tell you that education is very, very free in Kwara state now and His Excellency, Alhaji Abdulfattah Ahmed, came all out to say it, and that it is in giving effect to our laws that we run free, compulsory universal basic education in Nigeria. So, the same thing is happening in Kwara state.

We are not asking parents not to take care of the few things they are supposed to do but in SUBBEB today, we don't have any hand in the collection of any fees and we are telling our teachers that they should not send any of our pupils out of schools on the account of non- payment of fees because we know as far as we are concerned at basic level, education is free.

But if they want to do anything, that is strictly between the PTAs and school management, that is School Based Management Committee (SBMC). SBMC is one of the greatest achievements we have recorded when we came on board. SBMC was established in all the schools in Kwara state and we are trying to extend that to all Junior Secondary Schools. These people are functioning well, they have undergone training and continuity training.

This is one level of education that is very, very vital that we all have to put our hands on decks and ensure that it doesn't crumble, if the foundation is solid we don't have problems with other levels.

So, I will advise that people should just enroll and continue to enroll their kids and those that engage their wards and children in hawking should please desist from it because it's like they are distracting the attention of these kids. A good number of places that we visited in some local governments ,when you entered some class rooms where you found a few students, when you ask their colleagues about others ,they tell you that today is their market day and she has gone to market to hawk.

Impact on enrolment rate

As a result of proper monitoring and supervision of our schools, enrolment rate is very high now particularly in Kwara north senatorial district whereby hitherto you have only boys making enrolment. In fact you will be surprised that today, even the female enrolments is higher than boys now. Enrolments in Kwara state today are very high. Not only that students are being enrolled but we ensure that we maintain their stay in schools. With the partnership and support from ESSPIN, enrolment that used to be like 100 has increased to 300, they are really supporting SUBEB in all ramifications .Look at what they did in Nasarawa, Gata, Kaima local government. This is one thing that is laudable. Aside from the renovations of about four class rooms, they built staff quarters for teachers. That is something that SUBEB too will try to emulate. Besides, they have succeeded in getting us like almost 70 VIP toilets cutting across local government, they have supplied uniforms, assisting us in preparation of lessons notes, budget planning.

We have six ESSPIN states in Nigeria today. We have Enugu, Lagos, Kwara, Jigawa, Kaduna and Kano. Out of all these states that are privileged to be ESSPIN states, Kwara sate government is the best in terms of performance. So, we have been rated very high, that is why when some people from Ethiopia and Burundi came to visit the minister of education, he sent them to Kwara state to come and understudy us.

So our people have been very up and doing here, the staff, everybody is working as one single family, the more reason why Kwara sate was nominated as the best innovative Chairman of SUBEB. If they are saying I got that kind of award as the best innovative SUBEB Chairman in the north central, it's not me per se but the entire Kwara SUBEB. That is one credit you cannot take away from the entire team.

Accessing FG's intervention funds

The experience here in Kwara sate is very fantastic, Kwara state government has been very supportive, right from the tenure of the former governor, our leader ,Dr Bukola Saraki and our current governor, His Execllency, Alhaji Abdulfattah Ahmed who is a keen lover of education. They have been very ,very wonderful. In fact, right now, our counterpart fund from Kwara sate purse in ready. We are only waiting for that of federal government to give approval for this intervention since it's one of the conditions. You have to show proof of your own counterpart fund which is 50% before you can access that of the federal government .Today I am very happy to tell you that some of these projects are ongoing and we have additional funds in our bank account waiting for the approval. So we are not having difficulties in accessing our funds.

What are your projections for the year 2013?

Our projection for 2013 is to pursue what we started last year in ensuring that before the expiration of our tenure, I will not want to see any student seating on the bare floor to receive education or our children learning under trees and shades. Again, we want to equally ensure that our public primary and Junior Secondary Schools can compete shoulder to shoulder with these private primary schools.

This year, it is in our action plan that as much as possible we want to be alert to our responsibility in creating and constructing public toilets for our schools, because some of these schools don't have public toilets, and this is something that can easily distract students' attention. So, we don't want distraction this time around.

Equally, to make our schools well secured, we want to go all out in fencing of our schools and we want to equally ensure that quality materials are used in construction and renovation of our schools because gradually we are phasing out these mud class rooms. So, we want to partner with some of reputable companies particularly, those that can handle and give us standard aluminium roofing sheets so that our construction can stand the test of time.

Training and retraining of teachers is something again that we want to pursue to keep them abreast of the happenings in the world .Procurement of instructional materials, teaching aides, provision of text books is equally very important. Lesson notes for example, I can say that there are very few states that have standardized lessons notes for our public primary schools.

Staff welfare

We have about 1,446 public primary Schools in Kwara state today while we are contending and taking care of the welfare of over 25,000 teaching and non-teaching staff. One of the greatest challenges we faced when we came on board was the payment of teachers' salary. I am sure today, it is a tale of the past because we pay our teachers as at when due, we are not joking with their welfare, we are not joking with their allowances, we are not joking with other packages. From time to time, they come up with requests for loans and we guarantee such loans so that they can pursue their ambition, their welfare is very paramount to us. Just today, the NASU chairman came to our office appreciating what we did because they never believed it.

As they were collecting their salaries, those that were promoted in 2011 and 2012 got their own money too. So their promotional entitlements have been paid, people have been agitating for that and we have gotten the approval from His Excellency and we had our cash backing and currently they are collecting their money.