UBEC, Kano SUBEB flagged off 2019 community-level enrolment drive campaign

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The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) in collaboration with Kano State Universal Basic Education Commission (SUBEB), on Wednesday officially flagged off the 2019 community-level school Enrolment Drive Campaign (EDC) at Tatsan village of Tsanyawa Local Government Area of Kano state.

The campaign which was themed: “Education of our children is the responsibility of all,” was aimed at ensuring all out-of-school children were enrolled in school as well as ensuring involvement of all key education stakeholders in the process. It was attended by key stakeholders including the Emir of Bichi, who flagged off the campaign, as well as representatives of the Executive Secretary of UBEC, Kano State Commissioner of Education and Executive Chairman of Kano SUBEB.

In his speech read at the event, Kano State Commissioner of Education, Honourable Muhammad Sanusi Kiru, said certain sociocultural norms and economic barriers were discouraging formal education especially that of girls in Kano adding that access to basic education would help secure children’s fundamental human rights, as entrenched in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

“Kano state has taken a bold step towards achieving education for all through the implementation of the recent policy on free and compulsory education, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is necessary in order to give vulnerable, handicapped and poor children the opportunity to receive quality education which will give them the needed mental, moral and intellectual ability to build their future. However, for this measures to succeed there should always be a wide range of stakeholder collaborations involving community groups, corporate bodies and parents,” said Honourable Kiru.

In his speech, Dr Danlami Hayyo, the Executive Chairman of Kano SUBEB, said majority of the 10.5 million out-of-school children in Nigeria were from north-western part of the country, particularly Kano state. However, he said Kano’s efforts towards ending the phenomenon of out-of-school children would not succeed in isolation, considering its position as a centre of quranic education with thousands of Tsangaya schools, and also as a cultural, political, and economic nerve centre of northern Nigeria.

“There are many out-of-school children roaming the streets of Kano metropolis as well as other towns and rural areas of Kano who are being brought to Kano to acquire quranic education. This means that for this measure to succeed, all the 19 northern states must collaborate to come up with the same agenda and vigorously commit to its complete implementation,” urged Dr Hayyo.

In his remarks, the Emir of Bichi, Alhaji Aminu Bayero, applauded the Enrolment Drive Campaign and all stakeholders involved in it adding that no society would achieve meaningful development without providing adequate support to the education of its people. He therefore applauded the efforts of organisations supporting education development in Kano such as UBEC, Kano State Ministry of Education, SUBEB as well United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the UK’s Department for International Development (UK-DFID).

“Kano State being is one of the Nigerian states with huge  education gap; based on statistics, the figures of out-of-school children in Nigeria had increased from 10.5 million to 13.2 million, which has placed Nigeria among the countries with highest numbers of out-of-school children in the world. Most of these children are from northern states such as Borno, Yobe and Adamawa which are battling with the Boko Haram conflict. Kano state is also among the states with highest numbers of out-of-school children,” said the monarch.