Kano CSOs advocate for child protection, inclusive education

Better Schools, Better Nigeria
Better Schools, Better Nigeria
Kano Civil Society Organizations, CSOs, working with UKaid/DFID’s Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria, ESSPIN, on Tuesday, hosted a one-day state level advocacy dialogue with policymakers on child protection and inclusive education in Nigeria’s northwestern state of Kano.

The event which brought together the state’s education policymakers and stakeholders including teachers and students was attended by the executive governor of Kano state, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, who was represented by the state’s deputy governor, Prof Hafiz Abubakar, who also doubles as commissioner for education, science and technology.

Prior to 2009, the link between communities across Kano state and their schools was very weak and even where School Based Management Systems, SBMCs, existed, their roles and responsibilities was not clear and no unified vision of what they should be existed, hence the participation of community members was limited and schools were perceived to be solely the property of the government.

It was against this backdrop that ESSPIN came in to support civil society organizations working in the state’s education sector to be able to activate and train members of SBMCs as well as provide them with mentoring support on key areas including resource mobilization, relationship-building and change management, conflict resolution, communication, child protection as well as participatory and inclusive education.

Speaking at the event, Prof Hafiz Abubakar, the deputy governor of Kano state thanked the Education Sector Support Programme in Nigeria for helping the state’s schools establish School Based Management Committees, SBMCs, as well as following up to ensure the schools were safe for teaching and learning process adding that the state would also establish multi-stakeholder education advisory committees across its various local government areas.

In his address, ESSPIN’s team leader in Kano state, Olalekan Saidi, said every child, regardless of their gender, disability or social status deserved education and urged community leaders, traditional rulers, religious leaders, philanthropists and non-governmental organizations to ensure the safety of schools for effective teaching and learning process in Kano state.

Speaking on behalf of the CSOs, the chairman of the 11 CSOs working with ESSPIN and the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, Malam Abdullahi Yunusa, said the advocacy dialogue was geared towards getting the Kano state government enact legislations that would ensure child protection and safety as well as inclusive education in the state.

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