The Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board, KADSUBEB, says no fewer than five hundred thousand children are out of school in the state according to the recent United Nation Children’s Fund, UNICEF, report.

The Executive Chairman of the Board, Alhaji Tijjani Abdullahi stated this on Wednesday in Kafanchan, during a one day stakeholder’s sensitization meeting on the enrolment of out of school children across the state, organized for Zango Kataf, Jema’a, Kaura and Sanga local government areas.

Represented by the Director Social Mobilization of the Board, Mallam Kabir Lawal, the KADSUBEB Chairman said the essence of organizing the program was to enlighten participants on the need to join hands in the campaign of encouraging care givers to send their wards who are of school age and are out of school to return so as to guarantee their future.

He noted with dismay how some parents who are supposed to be in the fore front of ensuring their children obtain both religious and western education are the once stopping them from going to school.

Alhaji, Abdullahi however, who appealed to the participants to take the message to every nook and cranny of the state, warned that any parent who does not comply, the Kaduna State Child Right Act might catch up with them soon.

In their separate presentations, the facilitators, Mrs. Josephine Michael and Mallam Magaji Muhammed said the board through the Better Education Service Delivery for all (BESDA) program has since strategized on the motivating factors to make the children who return to classroom to remain in school.

They explained that some of the factors are the provision of school bags, uniforms, books, and sandals for free, in addition to the free education of the Kaduna State Government for Primary and Junior secondary schools.

Speaking in an interview with Salama News shortly after the program, some of the participants identified insecurity and poverty as the major factors making some parents not to send their children to school.

They pledged to champion the cause of sensitizing and encouraging the affected children and their parents to see the need to return and stay in school to achieve the set objectives.

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