July 20, 2022

The United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with the Nasarawa State Government has successfully returned 10, 353 out-of-school pupils to school in two local government areas of the state.

Mr. Ali Musa, the Desk Officer of UNICEF at the Nasarawa State Ministry of Education, said this while responding to questions from the media in Lafia on Wednesday during a media parley.

According to Musa, the coronavirus pandemic had ravaged and is still ravaging the economy of several nations thereby leading to loss of jobs by parents and causing many children to drop from school.

He explained that UNICEF came up with the back-to-school initiative to help return those who dropped out because of the effect of COVID-19 pandemic and other reasons.

“We feel it is important we come up with the project which is currently being implemented in many states including Nasarawa to help children get back to school and secure their future,” he added.

He added that the project was currently being implemented in 370 primary schools in Lafia and Nasarawa LGAs.

“From the 205 schools in Lafia and 165 schools in Nasarawa LGAs; 6,116 male and 4, 237 female children have been returned to school under the project,” he said.

He, therefore, said that the team would not rest on its oars until every child that is supposed to be in school had been returned to school.

He appealed to the media to continue to support them to achieve the objectives of the project.

The Commissioner for Education in the state, Hajiya Fatu Sabo, said that the government had since keyed-in into the initiative by UNICEF to ensure that every child of school-going age is in school.

The commissioner, represented by Abdulkareem Bala, the Director of Planning, Research and Statistics in the ministry, said that the initiative was in line with the priority of the Gov. Abdullahi Sule-led administration to improve school enrollment of children, especially, in the rural communities.

The commissioner, therefore, said that the government was ready to collaborate with any group working to complement its efforts by adding value to the quality of life of its citizenry.

The media engagement was attended by the representatives of print, electronic and online media organisations. (NAN)