Training
By Aminu Garko
Kano,The Accelerating Basic Education and Livelihood Opportunities for Children and Youth in North Western Nigeria Project is to provide accelerated basic education to 324,000 young girls and boys in the Northwest.
Out of this number, 32,400 will be persons with disabilities who will be catered for through learning centers, according to the project’s Brief released to newsmen in Kano on Wednesday.
According to the Brief,the project will support the beneficiaries’ transition from non-formal to formal education.
The project would also provide vocational training and employment opportunities in various fields, including green jobs for 60,000 youth out of which 6,000 will be persons with disabilities.
According to the document,20,000 trained youths would be linked to public, private sector organizations and non-governmental initiatives.
It said the Project would also train 300 facilitators to create 300 Village Savings and Loan schemes and 150 safe spaces for girls and young women to support learning of social skills and green job opportunities.
It will also train 120 peace club facilitators to integrate peace education into school curricula and promote conflict resolution and prevention strategies.
Funded by the European Union,the project is to also enhance the capacity of 3,000 girls, boys, and youths to promote and advocate for peaceful coexistence, girls’ education, and empowerment to foster behavioural change through innovative media approaches.
It intends to trengthen the capacity of 180 teachers and 720 facilitators for effective delivery of the ABEP national curriculum in Sokoto, Kano and Jigawa States.
Highlighting its background, the project quoted the 2022 UNESCO report which said Nigeria has approximately 20 million out-of-school children and youth, with the North-West region contributing 3.49 million.
“The region is faced with high poverty levels, forcing many children into economic activities rather than schooling; frequent attacks on schools and kidnappings; gender discrimination and early marriages of the girl child; poorly resourced schools, teacher shortages, and hidden costs associated with education, among others, limiting access to inclusive, quality education.
“The Accelerating Basic Education and Livelihood Opportunities for Children and Youth in North Western Nigeria project is tailored to support education and youth empowerment by providing youth, in particular girls in rural underserved and nomadic communities, with access to inclusive, gender transformative, and conflict-sensitive equitable quality education and skill development by providing increased access to vocational training, including training for green jobs, and developing critical skills for women, girls, youths, and nomads in three states – Jigawa, Kano, and Sokoto.
“Through the cause of implementation, as part of our global policy on safeguarding children and young people, the project will ensure that the participation of children, adolescents and youth is safe across all actions and that the safeguarding responsibility is shared, known, and acknowledged by all stakeholders,” the Brief added.
