Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger State, has expressed pessimism over the success of the National Campaign on Out-of-School Children in the state.
Governor Bello’s pessimism stems from the fact of the prevalence of armed bandits, Boko-Haram and ISWAP members hibernating in seven local councils of the state.
Governor Bello, while making remark at the formal launching of the National Campaign on Out-of-School Children for the six-geo-political zones of the country at Government House, Minna, organised by the Federal Ministry of Education in Collaboration with the state’s Ministry of Education, stressed the need the get rid of the insecurity to ensure the success of the programme.
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The governor said the size of Niger State, in terms of landmass, close to nine million kilometres and for the children to walk between five to six kilometres before getting to school is a near impossibility also for his doubt about the success of the programme.
He added that, “There are far more problems than the out of school children campaign for the children to go back to school, that is why the federal government has to come in to secure the state before we can talk about mobilizing the children back to school.”
Governor Bello also identified the frustrations facing the state due to attendant consequences of insecurity on the socio-economic wellbeing of Niger state, including accessing quality and affordable education, adding that “the programme can only work if schools are built at trekkable distances from their homes.
He observed that cases such as rape by armed banditry had become rampant in rural communities of the state, pointing out that nothing about the scheme would work except the Federal Government flushed out criminal elements that have taken over seven of the 25 local government areas of the state.
The governor continued, “Security challenges need to be addressed first. I think there are lots of work yet to be done if indeed we are committed to ending out of school children as a government. If we don’t resolve issues of insecurity, it will only be a dream”.
According to him, seven local government areas were under siege by combined forces of armed bandits, Boko-Haram and ISWAP terrorists, saying that many of the communities had been deserted while taking their children to school was the last thing the people in the affected areas are thinking about now.
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“It is important that the federal government deploy resources to address insecurity, else we can’t end out of school children when we have not been able to secure lives and properties, we will just be telling lies to ourselves.
“What we should be thinking of as a government is to first ensure that the people are comfortable in their homes and their children are safe before talking about taking them to school.
“Whatever programme we must do to address out of school children, we must look at the security situation in their environment.
“To encourage people to take their children to school, we must build schools closer to the communities and address the security situation.
“If we do not do these, we can sit down here and do propaganda and talk, but it is not realistic”.
Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba had, earlier said that Niger State was the focal point for the out of school programme, hence the need for stakeholders to check the number of children out of school in the state.
According to the Minister, “Pandemic and insecurity have skyrocketed the number of out of school children and that is why we are trying to encourage formal and non-formal education to reduce illiteracy to the barest minimum because no nation can achieve desired growth and development when majority of its productive population are illiterates”.
The state’s Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Hanatu Jubril Salihu, also disclosed that the state had 298, 192 out-of-school children for basic education out of which 127, 342 were girls while 161,750 boys.