Kano State has been selected to be one of the top beneficiaries of the newly introduced European Union-funded education and empowerment programme in Nigeria.

The programme is aimed at increasing the number of girls and boys benefiting from safe, inclusive, relevant learning and skills development opportunities in Kano, Jigawa and Sokoto states.

This was contained in a statement by the Director Public Enlightenment of the Ministry of Education and issued to newsmen on Tuesday.

The team leader of a delegation from the United Nations Children’s Fund, Mr Michael Banda, made the disclosure while briefing the state Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Umar Doguwa, about the programme in his office on Tuesday.

He said the four-year programme which commenced from September 2023 to August 2027 would cover 10 LGAs each from Kano, Jigawa and Sokoto states.

“The programme is aimed to benefit about 1.2 million learners, 5,000 teachers, 150 education officials and 5,400 community members in different areas of educational intervention.

“The programme operation is categorized into three main outputs which involve strengthened education governance and learning, expanded access to safe and inclusive learning environment and giving quality, continuous learning and enhanced competencies,” he explained.

Abanda noted that as the world is changing with digital technology, there is a need to adopt a systematic approach to the education sector whereby both teachers and learners would be provided with digital training.

He also noted that if digital technology is to be introduced to transform the education sector, definitely teachers, learners as well and ministry officials must be fully involved to acquire the needed training.

“Not only that, under this programme, we are proposing to empower and capacitate some education committees like Schools Based Management Committee as part of our effort to reinforce community partnership towards developing the standard of education ” he added.

Mr Abanda disclosed that the only challenge the programme may face in Kano is data assessment, stressing that “for a long period, the recruitment of teaching staff in Kano had not been done based on the required information and that necessitated the need for the establishment of teachers management Information data “.

Abanda further solicited the government’s support and cooperation towards making the project a reality.

Responding,  the state Commissioner of Education, Umar Doguwa thanked the EU for selecting Kano to be one of the beneficiary states of the programme.

Doguwa stated that because Kano is going to benefit more from the funds set aside for education under the programme, there is nothing the state could do other than to give all the needed support and encouragement.

“I want to assure you that this administration will give you all the necessary support in reaching out to the intended 1.2 million students and 5,000  teachers as required to realize the set goals ” the Commissioner pledged.

He disclosed that the State government had approved the release of funds to conduct a census of all teachers aimed at ensuring a comprehensive record of school teaching staff across the state.

He applauded the programme organizers for setting aside reasonable funds for the Arabic school’s development and skills acquisition programmes, which he described as a good initiative.