Although education is the salt of the world, a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF stated that only sixteen percent go to school in Jigawa state.
These figures show the backwardness that is being faced in terms of education in Jigawa.
This is the reason why the state government, the parliament, and the UNICEF have agreed to a plan that will help ensure that children who reach primary and secondary school attend.
The problem of not going to school is a problem that affects African countries including Nigeria, despite the efforts that governments at different levels say they are making to solve the problems of children going to school.
The report that was released recently shows that forty-four percent of the children who can enter primary schools and 52 percent of those who can go to high school do not go to school.
The report shows how some of the children are exposed to a lot of advertisements, which is considered a big problem for the children’s future.
Dr. Lawan Yunusa Danzomo is the commissioner of the Ministry of Education at the first level of the state who says that they have introduced different measures to solve the problem.
“All places where there are no schools, especially in the countryside, are occupied by people and their leaders to show them the importance of education”.
“We are encouraging the construction of new schools and the provision of land to build on. Then efforts are being made to add classes to the existing ones”, said Danzomo.
The commissioner has shown that the government is spending money on school renovation projects and overcoming the problem and the gap that exists in this sector.
Dr. Danzomo also pointed out that they have noticed that some problems prevent the children from going to school including some customs.
“There are people’s behaviors like sending children to the farm and advertising and other forced activities before they are told to send them to school”.
“Then the poverty that hit the country hard, played a role in reducing the number of children who do not go to school”.
The government and the support of the UNICEF fund attacked the leaders of the state, where during a meeting with the parliament they agreed to support the needy children.
Hon Haruna Aliyu Dangyatin, Speaker of the Jigawa State House of Assembly, said that after meeting with UNICEF, he distributed books and stationery to 8,000 children for free.
“Unicef has brought us information and invited members of parliament to give them the information of every local authority where children do not go to school”.
“We have seen that if Unicef is going to collect such information from abroad, it should be given cooperation in overcoming the problem,” said Hon Aliyu.
“That’s why we have to go back to our constituency, and we are implementing activities and taking measures to ensure that children are sent to school.”
The government of Jigawa state has established a board for the management of branch schools, where poor students and underprivileged children will be gathered and sent back to school to continue their studies.
Also, a program titled ‘Mothers Association’ has been created, which will involve the attention of mothers to make sure that their children go to school on time.
