TheCable

Aminu Tambuwal, governor of Sokoto state, on Tuesday flagged off an enrollment programme 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 programme, flagged off at Bodinga LGA of the state, seeks to enhance access to 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.

Tambuwal said government will strenghten the enrollment drive to ensure that it achieved its objectives.

He said the government will support parents with a conditional cash transfer programmes to ensure they allow their children attend classes.

“To ensure further success, the government 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,” Imam Imam, spokesman of the governor, quoted him as saying.

In his remarks, Mohammad Mohiuddin, UNICEF’s chief field officer in Sokoto, said the enrolment campaign could not have come at a time considering the fact that the state has the highest number of primary school children that are out of school in the country.

He the state is among the five northern states that are benefiting from UK and US governments’ funded Girls Education Project phase 3.

In his remarks, Muhammad Jabbi Kilgore, commissioner for baisc and secondary education, 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 girl child with a view to lay solid foundation on gender balance in schools.