At least 20,802 out-of-school children, including girls and almajiris in three local governments in Katsina state, will benefit from support of N332,833,000 from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) as part of efforts to improve school enrollment in the state.
The local government areas that will benefit from the Educate a Child (EAC) Cash Transfer Program for Out-of-School Children, as the financial aid is called, are: Kafur, Mani and Safana.
UNICEF Kano Bureau Chief Rahama Farah said the funds will be disbursed through “10,557 mothers and caregivers to help 20,802 children return to school.
Farah was speaking on Friday afternoon in Mani during the official launch of the cash transfer programme.
“Each mother/carer will receive N8,000 per installment, twice in 2022, which is equal to N16,000 per beneficiary,” he said.
The cash transfer, he said, would ensure that recipients not only enroll in school, but also stay in school.
Mr. Farah said that schools, including Integrated Koranic Schools, have been provided with literacy and numeracy skills “linked to employability and livelihood schemes”.
He also called on the Katsina state government to allocate more resources to the education sector.
“In addition to implementing the necessary laws, I would like to urge the Katsina state government to allocate and allocate more resources to the education sector, especially the development budget that addresses the improvement of the learning environment that directly affects the quality of education. learning outcomes. ,” he said.
In a short speech, Aminu Masari, governor of Katsina state, said the intervention was a positive development that would help reduce the number of children out of school in the state.
“The partnership between the Katsina state government and UNICEF has brought many positive results, not only in the education sector but in other sectors of the state,” he said.
“We are grateful to UNICEF and the Educate A Child (EAC) project for the funds. The Program Implementation Unit for the cash transfer program will monitor the program closely and ensure that the beneficiaries make judicious use of the resources,” said Mr. Masari.
Katsina State Education Commissioner Badamasi Charanci said the administration has employed teachers and provided learning materials and infrastructure that have helped improve students’ academic performance.
He praised UNICEF for sponsoring Educate A Child (EAC) and Girls Education Project (GEP) which he said has improved the literacy rate in Katsina state.
“These activities of the Qatar Foundation/UNICEF and the efforts of the Katsina state government in providing better quality of education in the state. This is attested to by our primary school pupils winning prizes in presidential debates, quizzes and Quranic recitation,” she said.