United Nations Children and Education Fund (UNICEF) has facilitated the enrolment of 964,325 out of school children from 2012 till date in Sokoto and Zamfara states.

Its Chief Field Officer in Sokoto, Dr. Maryam Darwesh-Said, said this at a three-day Media Dialogue on Girls’ Education Project (GEP3) in Sokoto.

Darwesh-Said said the figure represented 44 per cent in Sokoto and 62 per cent in Zamfara, based on progressive annual school census data.

She said during the period, the capacities of no fewer than 11,593 teachers were enhanced, out of whom 486 were females in the two states.

The UNICEF chief field officer said that 1,280 Integrated Qur’anic School (IQS) facilitators were trained in the two states, out of whom 92 were females.

He said that the project was targeted at supporting efficient and effective governance, where no fewer than 13,094 school management committee members underwent relevant capacity trainings in both states.

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Darwesh-Said said that the project ensured three outputs comprising increased enrolment and retention of girls in basic education, improved capacity of teachers to deliver effective learning for girls and improved governance to strengthen girls’ education.

Meanwhile, UNICEF in collaboration with the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), has developed a draft national action plan targeted at ending all forms of corporal punishment in schools.

Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, who congratulated UNICEF and TRCN for the initiative, said the action plan would improve enrollment, retention, transition and completion in education.

Adamu, represented by Hajia Binta Abdulkadir, director, Senior Secondary Education Department, said this at the National Awareness Creation Meeting on Ending Corporal Punishment in Schools.

According to him, we are beginning to see a global change of how corporal punishment is considered, and now it is easier to see that it is not effective and that there are alternatives.

“The Federal Ministry of Education, therefore, endorses this plan to serve as a roadmap for ending corporal punishment in schools in line with the Child’s Right Act passed into law in 2003.