Jigawa Assembly, UNICEF Launch School Enrolment Drive

Jigawa State House of Assembly in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has launched an enrolment campaign targeting 8,000 children in the first phase to tackle the high rate of out-of-school children in the state.

Launching the campaign at Sabuwar Dallan Community of Miga local government area, the speaker of the state Assembly, Rt Hon Haruna Aliyu said the project was part of the legislative support to complement the state government’s efforts at ensuring that every child attends school.

He explained that in Sabiwar Dallan Community and its environs, they have registered 300 out-of-school children, and given them all the necessary support for enrolling them back to school.

“Today, we are here to witness the formal enrollment of these 300 children back to class, and we have already gone far in carrying out such enrollment exercises across all our 30 legislative constituencies in the state.

“Apart from enrolling them back to class, we also considered their parents’ social and economic conditions. Therefore, we have put in place different mechanisms and interventions to ensure their retention in the schools.

“We will continue to partner with the executive, other civil societies, community leaders, parents and partners to address the high rate of out-of-school children in our dear state,” the speaker stated.

He commended the state governor, Malam Umar Namadi, for his commitment in ensuring that every child has access to qualitative basic education through numerous interventions such as the recruitment of over 7,500 teachers in one year as well as the renovation and construction of hundreds of classrooms across the state.

The governor, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Malam Bala Ibrahim, thanked the legislators and UNICEF for their kind intervention in one of the key areas of his 12-point agenda.

Governor Namadi assured of his administration’s commitment to partnering with anyone who indicates interest in supporting his quest to make Jigawa a state with high level of literacy, creativity, peace and prosperity.