From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and some other non-governmental organizations have joined the efforts of the Borno state government and other interested individuals in the state to facilitate the return of children to school.
Over 12 years of Boko Haram activities in the state and other northeast states, notably, Adamawa and Yobe, have led to destruction of communities and displacement of people particularly women and children who are forced into Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps.
Thousands of parents with their children, who were lucky to have escaped being killed by the terrorists, fled to Maiduguri, the state capital, while some escaped to a few local government headquarters considered to be safe.
Poverty and insecurity, expectedly, pushed up out-of-school numbers in the state within the years. Most of these children of school age, could not return to school years after they were displaced from their communities and schools, while some children were also orphaned and only brought to camps for the internally Displaced Person’s (IDPs).
A World Bank Recovery and Peace Building Assessment (RPBA) report, puts the number of classrooms destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgency at over 5,000, a situation which led to the disruption of schooling for over 2.2 million children as at the year 2015.
Borno State government also puts the current out-of-school statistics at 1.8 million far higher than 266, 478 figure in year 2000.
Commissioner for Education, Abba Wakibe, who gave the current out-of-school figure at the opening ceremony of At Risk Children-Programme (ARC-P) of about 1, 000 youths facilitators in Maiduguri, in November last year, expressed concern about this situation.
Expectedly, he blamed insecurity for the state’s out-of-school situation, adding that prolonged activities of insurgents in the state has also triggered poverty and lots of deprivation.
“We have 56,000 orphans and 49, 000 widows, but the number of fatherless children still remain unknown,” Wakibe disclosed even as he expressed hope that the ‘At Risk Children-Programme’ will reduce the number of out-of-school.
In 2021, a report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) puts the out-of-school figure in Nigeria at 20 million with Borno among states with uneviable position of highest numbers joining Bauchi, Jigawa, Katsina, Gombe, Kano among others.
Borno State government had introduced N30,000 monthly incentive to parents who allow their children especially the girl-child to go to school. The incentive was introduced under the World Bank-funded project through Adolescent Girl’s Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE), a $50,000 funded programme, Babagana Zulum, governor of Borno State, announced early December 2022.
Aside AGILE’s intervention, government has also started disbursement of over N2.6 billion as large school improvement grant for 108 public secondary schools in Borno to make school environment more conducive and attractive fot learning. This is, perhaps, to encourage more children to return to school and parents bring school-age children to school, the governor said.
Under this project, funds are provided for schools to maintain facilities including toilets, laboratories, classrooms among others.
Between June and October, last year, Governor Zulum personally enrolled new pupils into primary school including at Monguno, Borno volatile town north of Maiduguri.
Meanwhile, a pro-education organisation, PLAN International Nigeria, is also implementing some interventions to reduce the out-of-school situation in Borno. A brief released by the Abuja country office of the organisation, shows it introduced an Integrated programing on “Protection, Livelihood and Nutrition.”
The project according to PLAN International education team, provides direct assistance, including cash and vouchers, to the affected population to alleviate suffering and to protect them. This, in a way, was aimed at addressing poverty, one of the major reason for high out-of-school rate.
Among others, UNICEF is targeting to take about 86,000 pupils back to school with its special teaching and learning skill called Teach at the Right (TaRL) programme launched recently in Maiduguri.
State coordinator for the programme, Umar Lawan, explained that TaRL was designed to teach primary four to six pupils how to identify, spell English letters and numbers, using words formation and oral additional charts for the training.
He said UNICEF has already trained over 1,000 teachers in the state to handle this special skills for thousands of children affected by displacement and forced out of school.
“With the adoption of TaRL in primary schools, over 87, 000 pupils in primary four to six will learn fast in Kanuri and Hausa languages,” Lawan disclosed while unveiling the programme in Maiduguri last week.
“These interventions are expected to scale down the out-of-school number in the state,” said Ali Saleh, a retired teacher.