COVID-19: UNICEF, Nasarawa govt successfully return 10,353 pupils to school

The United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with the Nasarawa State Government successfully returned 10,353 out-of-school pupils back to school in two Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.

Desk Officer of UNICEF at the Nasarawa State Ministry of Education, Mr. Ali Musa, disclosed this during an engagement with the media in Lafia.

According to the UNICEF desk officer, the coronavirus pandemic had ravaged and is still ravaging the economy of so many nations thereby leading to the loss of jobs by parents and causing the children to drop out of school.

He explained that UNICEF came up with the back-to-school initiative to help return those who drop out because of the effect of COVID-19 and other reasons.

“We feel it is important we come up with the project which is currently being implemented in many states including Nasarawa State to help children get back to school and secure their future,” he noted.

He added that the project is currently being implemented in 370 Primary Schools in Lafia and Nasarawa LGAs.

“Out of the 205 Schools in Lafia and 165 Schools in Nasarawa LGAs, 6, 116 male and 4, 237 female children were returned to school under the project,” he added.

He, therefore, said the team would not rest until every child that is supposed to be in school in brought back and appealed to the media to continue to support them to achieve the objectives of the project.

Also speaking at the media dialogue, Commissioner for Ministry of Education in the state, Fatu Sabo said the government had since keyed into the initiative by UNICEF to ensure that every child of school-going age is in school.

The Commissioner represented by the Director of Planning, Research, and Statistics at the ministry, Abdulkareem Bala, explained that the initiative was in line with the priority of the Gov. Abdullahi Sule-led administration to improve school enrolment of children, especially in rural communities.

The Commissioner, therefore, said that the government was ready to collaborate with any group working to complement its effort by adding value to the quality of life of its citizenry.

The media engagement had in attendance representatives of print, electronic, and online media organizations.