UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) with support from development partners says it will collaborate with government to build the capacity of School Based Management Committees (SBMCs) on safety and security in schools.
The Head of the Kano Field Office of the Agency, Mr Rahama Farah, made this known on Wednesday, in Kano at a Media Dialogue on Girls’ Education.
Farah said that the capacity building would also include the Community Based Management Committees (CBMCs) in school to make communities more resilient.
“In Kano State through the Girls’ Education Project 3 (GEP3), funded by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the UK, 300 SBMCs members have been trained.
“Schools supported through the GEP 3 have also developed School Emergency Preparedness and Response Plans to mitigate the impact of potential and actual threats on schools,” he said.
He added that multi-sectoral task teams on school safety had also been established across the 34 local government areas of Katsina state to provide quick networking among actors on school security.
These interventions, according to Farah, are to encourage girls to attend school.
He stressed that in spite of these efforts, a lot still needed to be done to ensure that every girl in Nigeria was enrolled, attended school and completed her education.
In a bid to achieve this objective, Farah suggested that there was need for collective support of stakeholders especially the media.
He further expressed UNICEF’s appreciation to the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the UK, for funding the GEP 3 which started in 2012.
The support, he said, had expanded access to education for girls, resulting in no fewer than 1.3million girls having access to education in the six targeted northern states of Kano, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Bauchi and Niger.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that UNICEF is implementing a media dialogue on girls’ education, funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) of the UK.
About 45 journalists are attending the dialogue and were drawn from Northern states of Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara and the FCT Abuja. (NAN)