NANFeatures/Vol.11/No.111/2017 (July 25)
Relief, as UNICEF supports rehabilitation of schools destroyed by insurgents in Adamawa
By Yakubu Uba, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
To many communities affected by insurgency in Adamawa, recent rehabilitation of classrooms supported by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), is a big relief.
Adamawa is one of the frontline states where normalcy has returned and things are gradually picking up, including the re-opening of schools for children in the returnee communities of the worst affected local government areas.
The local government areas include Madagali, Michika, Hong, Mubi North, Mubi South, Maiha and Gombi.
The support by UNICEF to the School-Based Management Committees (SBMCs) for the rehabilitation of more than 80 classrooms in 40 selected schools is for communities in these seven local government areas.
Before the intervention, the education of children in communities affected by insurgency in Adamawa had been under threat.
Schools in the affected areas have also suffered various degrees of destruction wreaked by the insurgents whose disdain for western education is clearly defined as “Boko Haram’’; meaning western education is sinful.
However, UNICEF has continued to remain a major participant actor in the Safe School Initiative or Towards Safe School Initiative Project (TSSIP) to ensure continuity of education among children.
TSSIP is set up by a coalition of Nigerian business leaders in collaboration with United Nations, Global Coalition for Education and World at School in response to threat to education in the affected north eastern part of the country.
With funding support from Norway, UNICEF’s involvement in the initiative has been in various forms, including enrollment drive; provision uniforms to girls, provision of teaching and learning materials, among others.
The rehabilitation of classrooms in the 40 TSSIP schools in the seven Boko Haram-affected local government areas began with the provision of funds by UNICEF to the communities through the benefitting schools’ SBMCs made up of head teachers, teachers, parents, students, pupils, religious/traditional leaders and artisans, among others.
The rehabilitation of the block of classrooms programme was inaugurated recently at Balwhona Primary School in Gombi Local Government Area.
The Commissioner for Education in the state, Prof. Kaletapwa Farauta, commended UNICEF for actively involving the communities in the programme through the SBMCs.
He reminded benefitting communities that the fund provided through the SBMCs by UNICEF were strictly for materials needed for the work as the communities ought to provide the labour in cash or in kind.
In her remark at the inauguration, Mrs Fadimatu Alfa, Director, Social Mobilisation of Adamawa State Universal Basic Education Board, said the UNICEF package was more than N25 million shared among the SBMCs in the 40 benefiting schools with different amounts depending on the size of rehabilitation work.
Alfa called for judicious utilisation of the fund to attract more support, saying “you have carpenters, masons and the rest in your communities; let us all join hands for this project to succeed.
“We have Mothers Association in our schools that should also contribute to ensure free meals for the volunteer workers; this project is the beginning of a good journey, many goodies are coming.’’
In Michika Local Government which has the largest number of 10 schools that are benefitting from the support, the Education Secretary of the Local Education Authority, Mr Joseph Kwabe, said more than 50 schools were in need of urgent attention in the area.
He explained that the UNICEF intervention in rehabilitating some classrooms in 10 schools would, nonetheless, go a long way in providing environment conducive for learning.
Mr Abdulrahman Lagu, Chairman, SBMCs of Jigalambu Primary School in Michika, said the school was the worst affected in the entire local government.
He observed that with the exception of UNICEF’s support for the rehabilitation of a block of three classrooms, the school had not been attended to by any government agency or non-governmental organisation.
Corroborating Lagu’s claim, the Assistant Head Teacher of the primary school, Mr Peter Jerome, said whenever it rained, they had no option than to send the pupils home, thereby losing valuable teaching and learning.
He observed that various organisations had visited the school and taken pictures of destruction but only UNICEF had so far taken concrete steps by providing fund for rehabilitation of one of the affected blocks of classrooms.
Irrespective of his observation, observers note that some schools have felt the touch of government organisations such as the Presidential Committee on North East Initiative and Victim Support Fund.
They, however, solicit fresh efforts at rehabilitating and reconstructing more schools in Adamawa and other frontline states in the north eastern part of the country affected by insurgents.
Some residents of the affected areas describe the UNICEF’s initiative as good development that boosts the enrollment drive.
They note that good education remains a tool for reducing poverty among families, communities and households.
They, therefore, laud the UNICEF’s support and commitment to education as a better way of proving to other stakeholders involved in the resettlement, rehabilitation and reconstruction of the region to join hands in making the Safe School Initiative programme work.(NANFeatures)
**If used, please credit the writer as well as News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)