Muhammad Garba
European Union ( EU) launched a project to support the addressing of the high rate of out-of-school children by enrolling 130,000 children back to school in Jigawa state.
The EU-funded project, “Accelerating Basic Education and Livelihood Opportunities for Children and Youth in Northwest of Nigeria” will be implemented in three states of the region namely Kano Jigawa, and Sokoto.
Speaking at the official flagging off of the program held in Dutse capital of Jigawa state Ms Tobi Ransomed an EU Consortium Lead /Education Adviser said, the EU has earmarked a total of €35 million for the implementation of the 3 years project.
She said, three partners including Save Children International (SCI) PLAN International, and DAG were saddled with the responsibility of implementing the program in collaboration with the state government and other state and non-state stakeholders.
“In Jigawa state the program will be implemented in three piloting local government areas within three years” Ms Tobi stated
According to her, the project will focus on supporting and facilitating the enrollment of out-of-school children back to school through campaign and materials intervention.
In his comment, the EU Programme manager Mr Vandi Hyeladi revealed that the project targeted 400,000 out-of-school children in the three states, and it will also support 60,000 children with livelihood empowerment to enable them to move to Secondary Education after completing the Basic.
The high rate of out-of-school children exceeded 10,000,000 million in Nigeria, this is a source of concern and all hands must be on deck to address the social crisis before it becomes too late.
According to the report from UNICEF, there are over 700,000 children in Jigawa state.
In his comment at the occasion, the Jigawa state deputy Governor commended the EU intervention and described it as timely and it will complement the effort of the state government to ensure access to qualitative basic education for all children in the state.
He then promised to give all necessary support to the implementation of the project to achieve the desired goals.
