Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State Tuesday flagged off an enrolment program which seeks to admit one million, two hundred and sixty eight thousand (1,268,000) new pupils into primary and junior secondary schools across the state.
The ambitious program, flagged off at Bodinga LGA of the state, seeks to enhance access of all eligible children to universal basic education and promote retention, completion and transition of students from basic and secondary levels to tertiary institutions in the state.
Speaking at the event, Tambuwal said government will strengthen the enrolment drive to ensure that it achieved its objectives.
He said parents will be supported with a conditional cash transfer programmes by the government to ensure they allow their children attend classes.
To ensure further success, the government said it will deploy technology for biometric data capture of those enrolled in order to keep track of their school attendance and performance, and at the same time take steps to address constraints and challenges that may arise while they are in schools.
In his remarks, UNICEF’s Chief Field Officer in Sokoto, Mohammad Mohiuddin, said the enrolment campaign could not have come at a better time, considering the fact that Sokoto has the highest number of primary school children that are out of school in the country most of who are girls.
He however said that the state is currently one of the five in the North that are benefiting from UK and US governments’ funded Girls Education Project phase 3.
In his remarks, Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Dr. Muhammad Jabbi Kilgore, said the theme for the enrolment drive is ‘Catch them early, keep them long.’
He said the campaign will be aggressively conducted to massively register children with special focus on the girl child with a view to lay solid foundation on gender balance in schools.
