Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Kebbi State government has attributed the alarming rate of out-of-school children in the state to the influx of illegal migrants from Republics of Niger, Chad and Benin, which have some “unmanned” borders with Nigeria.
The government, yesterday, said the ugly development made it look as if several multi-billion naira interventions from Federal and State governments, as well as other local and international partners were not yielding the needed result.
Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Mohammad Magawata, made the disclosure during a two-day media dialogue on Cash Transfers Programme, sponsored by the United Nations’ Children Education Fund (UNICEF), in Kebbi.
“Aside several interventions by local and international partners, we have our own local programmes for assisting children to enrol and remain in school. We pay their school fees, feed them in schools and provide other comforts that would make them desire formal education.
“For instance, every month, Kebbi State government spends over N280 million on feeding the children in over 270 secondary schools in the state. The federal government attends to primary school pupils through their own programme. This was basically designed to encourage school enrolment and retention.”
In addition to that, he said the state government had increased investment in basic and secondary education, in order to provide conducive environment for teaching and learning.
“This year alone, the state government has spent over N2 billion on furniture in basic schools. This was in addition to other huge investments in training and empowerment of teachers.”
He was optimistic that the impact of several UNICEF and World Bank interventions in the state would herald a change of mindsets for parent who might want to deny their children the opportunity to acquire formal education.