…Enrols 300 pupils
By Mohammed Abubakar Dutse
The campaign for the enrollment of out-of-school children at the basic level got a major boost in Jigawa state on Thursday with the Speaker of the Jigawa State House of Assembly, Haruna Aliyu Dangyatin, enrolling more than 300 pupils back into the classroom in his constituency.
The enrollees are part of 8000 children who are out of school in his local government of Miga.
The flag off of the campaign, which took place at Sabuwar Dallan primary school, a community in the local government, witnessed the attendance of the state Governor, Malam Umar Namadi, 27 out of the 30-member assembly, traditional and religious leaders as well as other critical stakeholders from the community.
Namadi, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, (SSG) Bala Ibrahim described the initiative as a welcome development, which boost education at the state level.
He maintained that education is of topmost priority to the state government, saying that accounted for why the state government appropriated 32% of its budgetary allocation to education in 2024 fiscal year, a figure, he described as the highest by any state government in the country.
The governor praised the intervention of the speaker and urged other members of the assembly to take a cue from the speaker’s gesture, even as he expressed appreciation for the cooperation the executive has been receiving from the lawmakers in executing its developmental agenda.
The speaker, who represents Miga State Constituency in the assembly, described the flag off as a deliberate effort to complement the giant strides being made by the governor to revive the sector which has almost gone comatose.
According to him, “The aim of this campaign is to bring back children that are out of school and this is in alignment with the 12-point agenda of the governor, which places free and qualitative education for the children of the masses on the front burners.
“The governor has promised to ensure that all children of school-going ages in Jigawa are enrolled and what we’re doing now is to follow his footsteps for the overall benefits of our state.”
Dangyatin recalled that the assembly had earlier in the year signed a commitment with the United Nations Children’s Funds (UNICEF) to bring back all the children who are out of school in Jigawa state, so what I have just done will be replicated in all the remaining 29 constituencies of the state.”
Admitting that the 300 out of the 8000 out of school children in the local government pupils that were enrolled at the occasion was not enough, the speaker, however, described it as “a step ahead”, but added that, “We’ll continue to do so with the state government, the local government, until we achieve our aim.
“Our commitment to enrolling 8,000 out-of-school children in my constituency begins today with 300 children from Sabuwar Dalan village. We are adopting strategies such as a massive sensitization campaign on the importance of education, providing basic learning materials like uniforms, school bags, and exercise books, and improving the learning environment,”
According to the recent figure of Out-of-School children by the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) there are 750, 000 children of school going age who are currently out of school in Jigawa state.
