Over one hundred new primary schools will be constructed under the Reaching out of School Project in Kaduna State while one hundred and seventy existing ones will be renovated in an effort to bring children back to school.
Project Coordinator for the Reaching Out-of-School Children Project in Kaduna State , Mr. Ezra Mangai stated this at the distribution of five hundred learning materials to learners of LGEA Model Primary School Afaka in Kaduna State.
The project which is for four years and targeted at 200,000 out of school children is expected to distribute over 500,000 learning materials to pupils in nine local government areas of Kaduna State.
Mr. Ezra Mangai explained that an assessment was carried out before the exercise.
“is also going on concurrently across nine local governments in Kaduna State in the three geopolitical zones. Lere, Kachia, Jama, Sabongari, all these communities, because our project, the Reaching Out-of-School Children Project, is targeting vulnerable communities, hard-to-reach communities, communities where the children cannot afford to do things for themselves”.
” The Kaduna State government has come up with this initiative under the leadership of his excellency Governor Uba Sani to ensure that learners not only come back to school but are aided to learn”.
He said it was part of strategic and proactive measures by the state government in boosting access to quality education especially at the grassroots and suburban areas.
The coordinator attributed the success of the project to the commitment of the state government and other partners which has led to vast improvement in school enrollment.
In his remark, the Education Coordinator of the Project under Save the Children Component, Mr. Ayuba Usman said all the pupils from the targeted schools have been profiled with attendance and retention expected to improve.
Head Teacher of the school Mallam Sani Yusuf, and a class teacher Mrs. Queen Gabriel Ojima expressed excitement over the gesture and the positive impact it will bring to the pupils and teachers.
The learning materials include bags, exercise books, maths sets, erasers, pencils and sharpners.
The project is partnered by Save the Children International, GPE, Kuwait Fund For Arabic Economic Development, IsDB, EAA and Islamic Solidarity Fund.
Cov/ Godwin Duru
