Kaduna: The Reaching Out-of-School Children (ROOSC) project, an initiative by the Kaduna State Ministry of Education, has extended its ‘Back-To-School campaign’ to the community of Unguwan Shanu, located in Kaduna North LGA. This campaign, inaugurated on Tuesday, aims to raise awareness about the ROOSC project while encouraging parents and caregivers to send their children back to school.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the campaign team included stakeholders from the ministry, development partners, religious organizations, and the media. They commenced their initiative with a courtesy visit to the Village Head of Unguwan Shanu. Mr. Ezra Angai, Project Coordinator of the Project Monitoring Unit at ROOSC, emphasized that the initiative is designed to make quality education inclusive and accessible for all children. The project plans to build 102 new schools and renovate 170 existing ones, including learning centers.
A significant aspect of the campaign is the Catch-Up Programme, a nine-month remedial education initiative aimed at children who have never been enrolled in school or have dropped out. This program offers foundational literacy, numeracy, and life skills to help reintegrate these children into mainstream education or vocational training.
Mbursa Emmanuel, ROOSC Project Director at Save the Children, praised the community leaders for their support, acknowledging their crucial role in the project’s success. Emmanuel noted that while livelihood support for families, a key barrier to school attendance, is not covered under the project, discussions are ongoing with the government and partners to explore potential solutions.
Kabir Lawal, Director of the Social Mobilisation Department at the State Universal Basic Education Board, stated that the campaign would become a recurring activity within the state’s education budget. Provisions have been made for this type of campaign in the annual budget, and it will now be conducted at the start of every academic session. Additionally, School-Based Management Committees (SBMCs) are being trained, and Social Mobilisation Officers are being deployed to enhance grassroots advocacy across communities.
The Village Head of Unguwan Shanu, Alhaji Nura Ibrahim, praised the government’s efforts to ensure that out-of-school children return to education. He also urged the government to address poverty, a root cause of educational exclusion, more decisively.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the ROOSC project was initiated by the Kaduna State Government under its Ministry of Education, with Save the Children and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) as the implementing partners. The project aims to target 200,000 out-of-school children while providing 500,000 teaching and learning materials to support both teachers and learners.