200,000 Out -Of -School Children Gain From AENN In Borno
A current United Nations International Children Emergency Fund report says ten point five million Nigeria school children have dropped out of school due to banditry, kidnapping and COVID-19 pandemic.
In an effort to curb the menace, a three year United States and United Kingdom governments funded activity to significantly increase safe and relevant educational opportunities for children and youth in crisis environments in Nigeria-Addressing Education in Northeast Nigeria, AENN, was launched in 2018.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the project that had benefitted nearly two hundred thousand out of school children in Borno and Yobe States, the United States Agency for International Development Mission Director, Dr. Anne Patterson, expressed pleasure at the success of the project, saying a better educated Nigeria is a stronger, more prosperous, and ultimately resilient Nigeria.
She said the activity provided two thousand learning facilities and as such, improved literacy, numeracy, and social emotional skills for the two hundred thousand, out-of-school children in formal and non-formal settings.
A representative of the federal Ministry of Education, Dr. Folake Davies, said the project assisted the Federal Government in no small measures to create more certified and safe educational environments for girls and boys in the states in collaboration with major local, federal, and international education establishments.
She said the project will be sustained and replicated in other states of the federation with similar problems and encouraged the benefitting states to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the organisers so as to further develop their capacity.
