By Aliyu Dangida
Succour for Kano students especially school girls as the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF distributed menstrual hygiene kits, security kits, teaching and learning materials among others to schools in Kano State in order to address issues of out of school children.
The UNICEF Chief of Kano Field Office, Rahama Farah while making symbolic distribution of the items, identified lack of menstrual hygiene kits and insecurity or unsafe learning environment as factors responsible for issue of out of school children situation.
Farah however said that the items distribution were part of the Funds numerous interventions to compliment the government efforts to make schools safe and increase enrolment.
According to him, “the education sector in Nigeria faces a number of challenges which impact negatively on learning. One of these is the incidence of unsafe learning environment epitomized by attacks on schools and abduction of learner’s. This situation scares learners away from schools and discourages parents from enrolling and retaining their children in school, thereby exacerbating the situation of out of school children especially in Northern Nigeria.
“To improve access to education for Nigerian children, UNICEF has been supporting government to address the challenge of unsafe learning environment. For instance, under the Girls’ Education Project (GEP 3), UNICEF supported the training of School Based Management Committee members (SBMCs), teachers and pupils in Kano and Katsina States on school safety and early warning systems. UNICEF has also supported the training of adolescent girls in menstrual hygiene management.
“Building on our ongoing support to education, the items in the UNICEF supplies being distributed to schools today include rechargeable torch/hand light, plastic emergency whistles, electric bells, and basic first aid kit for treating minor injuries.
“Other items donated include Menstrual hygiene kits, mathematics texts for remote learning and reading textbooks.
“While the menstrual hygiene kits are meant to help address the hygiene needs of adolescent school girls – the lack of which keeps many of them out of school,” Farah noted.
The UNICEF Chief of Kano Field Office also used the opportunity to re-echoed call on the state government to as a matter of urgency pass the child protection bill into law in the state.
Earlier, the Chairman, Kano State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, Danlami Hayyo sounded a word of warning on the schools/beneficiaries not to sell items donated to them noting stiffer penalities awaits whoever is found abusing the items.
Hayyo represented by the Commissioner 1, Kabir Ahmad however applauded UNICEF for it relentless interventions in the states education sector towards improving teaching and learning.
However, the Chairman, School Based Management Committee, SBMC, Tijjani Baraya said it will set up a monitoring team to monitor the distribution and usage of items in order to achieve the set objective of increasing the number of enrolment and ensuring safe schools.
Hotpen reports that, items distributed include over 6,000 menstrual hygiene kits, 330 security kits and 190 alarm bells among others to 60 schools across 11 Local Government Areas (6 Focal LGAs for GEP 3 project and 5 LGAs bothering Insecurity states).
