Niger state government says it is keying into the Federal government At-Risk Children Project (ARC-P) to support large number of out-of-school children in the state.
Convener of the Programme and Wife of the Niger state Governor, Dr Amina Bello said when she received a team on ARC-P led by Hajiya Maryam Uwais, Special Adviser to the President on Social Investment programme that the state government would use the programme to support out-of-school children as well as address unemployment among youths across the state to with life dignity skills.
According to her “the project will address a lot of challenges faced by a large number out-of-school children as the state is said to have the highest number of out-of-school children. It is also to support unskilled youths.”
She attributed increased cases of violence, kidnapping and insecurity in northern Nigeria to poor and lack of education in the region, adding that ARC-P was to help mitigate against such vices.
Bello noted that the state government was committed to supporting out-of-school children to become productivity members of the society, adding that adequate support and structure would be put in place for the project.
Earlier, Uwais said the project was a Federal Government initiative designed to provide a multidimensional approach to challenges of out-of-school children at risk potentially and physically.
She said the project has seven pillars such as literacy and numeracy, health and nutrition, digital skills, vocational and financial skills, life skills and sports, gatekeeper intervention, agriculture and climate issues.
She noted that the project was to identify challenges faced by out-of-school children, youths and assess them based on current efforts made by the state government to add value so as to reduce poverty in the state.
“This project is to support and engage children and youth without education go to school and empower them with skills to achieve their full potentials,” she said.
In his remarks, Alhaji Ahmed Matane, Secretary to the state Government, said the project would help children displaced by banditry and children of pastoralists to get back to school in order to remove them from the street.
Part of activities was inspection of some centers where the children and youth will be trained and visitation to some Islamic schools were Almagiris are acquiring education.
