Worried by the number of out-of-school children as result of Covid-19 and insecurity resulting from the activities of murderous Fulani herdsmen, Enugu State Government in collaboration with UNICEF has launched a campaign christened: Back-to-school, aimed at ensuring that the displaced children who dropped out of school return to continue their education.
The negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on small businesses made some parents unable to send their children and wards back to school. Also, some communities being attacked constantly by marauding Fulani herdsmen abandoned their homes prompting their children and wards to drop out of school.
And to ensure that the children continue with their education, Enugu State Government through Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board, in collaboration with UNICEF, developed a programme aimed at ensuring that the affected children return to school.
At the event, children from communities in Aninri and Isi-Uzo local government councils were selected, and according to an official of the State Ministry of Education, the children have already been sent to schools in their areas to resume classes.
And to encourage them, education materials, including school bags, exercise books, pencils; school sandals, among other things, were distributed to them at the ceremony attended by traditional rulers from the affected local government areas.
Speaking at the ceremony, the Commissioner for Education, Prof. Uchenna Eze explained that the government embarked on the programme because they don’t want any child of school age in the state to be out of school, saying that any of them could be great in future hence the need to give them the opportunity to develop their God-given talents.
Represented by Chukwudi Onah, a director in the ministry, the commissioner commended UNICEF for partnering with the state in the laudable programme, assuring that the government would continue to support the programme because of the high premium it attaches to education.
In his own speech, the chairman of Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board, ESUBEB, Chief Ikeji Asogwa disclosed that Enugu State was number one in the states with low out-of-school children but has dropped to number two in the last two years as a result of Covid-19 and insecurity, hence the need for the campaign to ensure that no child is out of school and to restore the state to its number one position.
Represented by a member of the board, Hon. Beloved Dan Agbo Anike, the chairman, explained that due to the vested interest of the state government in education, the board has successfully renovated and furnished over 1000 schools while renovation for over 300 schools are ongoing.
“The threat of insecurity in Isi Uzo Council Area is one of the reasons we have these children here who are out of school. But we are returning them to schools to develop them to be useful to themselves and the society,” he explained.
Anike called on the Federal Government to hand over the running of primary schools to states and local governments because, according to him, each state has its own peculiar problems and programmes, saying that generalizing the running of education is not achieving the targets for some states.
He also noted that there has been a drop in community participation in running schools, resulting in shortage of public schools, and called on communities to embark on building of schools to increase access to education in the rural areas.