EU, UNICEF TO ENROLL 1.5M CHILDREN AND YOUTHS INTO THE EYE PROJECT 22-02-24
By Sadiq Aminu The European Union (EU), in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has pledged to enrol and empower 1.5 million children, youths and adolescents in Jigawa, Sokoto and Kano states, in its four-year education and empowerment (EYE), project.
The senior education manager of UNICEF Kano field office Michael Banda, made the indication during a multi-sectoral key stakeholders meeting on the education and youth empowerment project, held in Kano.
According to him, the programme was aimed at increasing the number of girls and boys benefiting from safe, inclusive, relevant learning and skills development opportunities in Kano, Jigawa and Sokoto states.
Banda said the four-year programme which commenced from October 2023 to August 2027, would cover Kano, Jigawa and Sokoto states.
“The programme operation is categorized into three main outputs involving strengthened education governance and learning, expanded access to the safe and inclusive learning environment and giving quality, continuous learning and enhanced competencies”
The senior education manager pointed out that in Nigeria, many children between seven and 14 could not read or write simple sentences.
He explained that Kano State has been selected to be one of the top beneficiaries of the newly introduced European Union-funded education and empowerment programme in Nigeria.
The senior education manager pointed out that, Kano will have the lion’s share of the project because of its population and the number of out-of-school children, saying that, the EU was not only concentrating its resources in Kano but in Northwest, Northeast and other states in Nigeria.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Umar Doguwa, commended the development partners for the gesture.
He hinted that the state government was committed to investing in the education sector, through interventions aimed at uplifting the sector to global standards.
Doguwa maintained that the state government has renovated girl-child education shuttle buses to ease students’ transportation problems, and had allocated the lion’s share of its 2024 budget to education.