EDUCATION: Gov Tambuwal Enrolls 75,650 Out-of-School Children, Establishes 1513 Learning Centers.

Sokoto state government has established 1,513 learning centers and enrolled 75,650 out of school children.

His Excellency, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal stated this few days ago why at the launching of the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) at Government House, Sokoto.

The Governor indicates that there’s been an enrollment of 31,100 boys and 44,550 girls as well as an improved literacy rate of 60,159 children in 1,513 learning centers across the 23 local government education authorities in the state.

He said it is an effort initiated to increase equitable access to out of school children, improve literacy rate and strengthen accountability in basic education.

He explained further that a total of 1,513 mentors/facilatators were engaged and trained to handle the centres set up, adding that all necessary equipments are available.

Tambuwal added that the literacy programme is being implemented in 629 primary schools across the LGEAs with a total of 60,159 participating grade 1 pupils.

He maintained that a total of 981 mentors, coaches and teachers have been trained in early grade reading skills, even as 125,394 copies of pupils textbooks and 5, 076 teachers guides on Hausa and English: ‘Mu Karanta’ and ‘Let’s Read’ respectively, were procured and distributed to schools as well 213,000 learners copies and 4,260 facilitators guide were procured and distributed.

According to the Governor, laptops computers were purchased and distributed to BESDA teachers and learning materials for over 100 Qur’anic model learning centers in communities across the state under the Consultative Committee for Educational Development led by Sultan Of Sokoto, Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar. The centers instruct Almajiris in Qur anic and Western learning skills.

The minister of state for education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, in his address, appreciated the federal government for initiating BESDA even as he gave kudos to the World Bank for providing credit for the sum of US$611 million to support the Nigerian government in strenghtening Universal Basic Education as well as addressing the first pillar of the ministerial strategic plan which is out of school children.

According to the minister, the programme focuses on 17 states in the country which include the entire 13 states of the North West and North East geo+political zones, Niger, Oyo, Ebonyi and Rivers states. The selection of these states, he explained, was based on the prevalence of the number of out of school children.

“Since inception, the BESDA programme have successfully enrolled 1,053,422 out of the previous figure of 10’193,918 out of school children in Nigeria, he said”.

Nwajiuba lauded the effort of Sokoto state government on its giant stride in the education sector in the state.

In his remarks, Sultan Sa adu Abubakar represented by Wazirin Sokoto Professor Wali Junaidu also commended the state government for prioritizing education in the state.

Prof Junaidu expressively said the Sokoto state has performed wonderfully in the area of education adding that a lot have been achieve in the interventions carried out under the chairmanship of Sultan Abubakar who heads the state consultative committee on education.