UNICEF, Gombe SUBEB, develop action plan to address out-of-school children 

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Gombe State Commissioner for Education, Dr Aishatu Maigari, has lauded the intervention of United Nations Children’s Fund in supporting the state to reduce the out-of-school children scourge.

Speaking in an interview with journalists in Gombe on Thursday at a two-day workshop organised by State Universal Basic Education with support from United Nations Children’s Fund Bauchi Field Office on policy dialogue with relevant education stakeholders on addressing out-of-school phenomenon and development of an action plan, she noted that enrolment is a collaborative effort.

According to her, “You find out that when party is not doing what he or she should do whether the government, community it will result in gaps in the menace of out-of-school children.”

Maigari called for concerted effort in curbing the phenomenon saying, “We are calling for more collaboration from all the stakeholders in education.”

While decrying the rate of out-of-school children in the state especially following the geographical location of Gombe, Maigari added, “Because of the relative peace in Gombe we have had so many influxes of people who are coming to find refuge in Gombe. You see the strain in our facilities if you budget for 20 pupils in our school you find out that we have 50, because 30 are not from Gombe that is just hypothetical number. The governor since he assumed office in 2019 he declared a state of emergency in the education sector. In the last five years, since 2019 we have 550,000 and what they have given us is over 700,000 children.”

Also speaking, UNICEF Education Specialist Bauchi Field Office, Abdulrahman Ibrahim, said the workshop was a sequel to development on policy framework on education at the national adding “We are here to domesticate the national framework. The two-day work is for us to see how we can domesticate it at the state level. What we are doing now is to develop an action plan on how to reduce rate of out-of-school children. We want to strengthen the education system to improve access as well as quality learning the in-school should not be left behind.”

While calling for collaboration, Ibrahim called for community ownership, he added, “if community leaders will feel that the schools belong to them and take level of ownership, if you want to improve school enrolment you need to strengthen the education system.”

•Ishiyaku

Also, Special Adviser to the Gombe State Governor on Development Partners  Coordination, Ishiyaku Babayo, while commending the effort of stakeholders said “This activity is a development framework that has to do with the out-of-school children you can’t get development partners just like that; you must have a plan, an action you want them to come and support you with. Gombe State Government has been involved in a lot of programmes to ensure the issue of out-of-school children is eradicated. Aside BESDA programme, the state government has open an Almajiri school, as you know there are different categories of those Almajiri children that are roaming around but these schools am talking about have teachers and they will be provided with life-skills.”

On his part, Representative of SUBEB, Ali Baba, described education for all as imperative, adding that there was need for collaboration.

“At the same time both parents, teachers, government peer group, have roles to play in making sure that children are not deprived of such rights. Parents role is to send their children to School and it’s the responsibility of government to establish schools and provide necessary materials,” he said.

He emphasised the role of sensitisation and mobilisation in improving enrolment, adding “awareness campaign should be increased by government, community champions.”