Sustaining Sokoto skills, digital centres requires govt. funding, commitment – Official

Malam Yusuf Ibrahim, Director, Child Development and Protection, Sokoto State Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, says sustaining skills centres in the state will require government’s funding and commitment.

Ibrahim said this in Sokoto on Friday during a media dialogue and field trip to address the situation of Almajiri children and out-of-school adolescent girls in Nigeria.

Supreme news reports that United Narions Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in partnership with Eleva foundation constructed the skills centres in three Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state to ensure the lifelong learning of almajiri children and out-of-school Adolescent girls in the state.

The media dialogue is organised by the Child Rights Information Bureau (CRIB) of the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation in collaboration with UNICEF

Ibrahim explained that the skills centres required revolving funding to ensure their sustainability.

“For the Digital village for almajiri children and out-of-school adolescent girls is a model that I so much believe the state government can buy in.

“We will have that leadership from our own ministry to include all the directors, all the departments as technical departments.

“We really need to give the commitments, give the support, give enough monitoring of the centres, enough mentoring, and a lot of capacity building from other key partners that will come to support us to manage the centres.

“So, I believe it’s something that is sustainable,” he said.

Speaking on the dearth of female teachers hampering education access and healthcare delivery, Ibrahim called for the recruitment of more female teachers in the education and health sectors.

Highlighting the challenges in collecting data on Almajrai and out-of-school children, the UNICEF Chief of Field Office, Sokoto, Michael Juma, said that identifying households proved to be a significant hurdle.

Juma addedqa that with a robust team in place, UNICEF had made substantial progress in tracking implementation across the implementing LGAs.

“To inform the design of education programmes, we are currently employing a mapping technique to identify all out-of-school children.

“This effort has yielded notable successes, particularly in vocational skills training,” he explained.

Màeanwhile, the UNICEF Child Protection Specialist, Pius Uwamanua, said UNICEF had worked with the Sokoto State Arabic and Islamic Education and the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs to address vulnerabilities’ issues.

He explained that the vulnerabilities include the risks of almajiri, outside family care and out-of-school adolescent girls.

According to him, 7,521 girls and 9,104 boys totaling 16,625 were reached with integrated case management services and care plan .

“In Sokoto state, 7,521 out-of-school adolescent girls were empowered with knowledge and lide skills training as well as comprehensive sexuality education to address harmful practices, including hundreds marriages.

“Two community based child protection centres were established in Dange Shuni and Kware and are functional for life skills session of almajiri and out-of-school adolescent girls.

“We also provided support skills acquisition and life skills, including formal education for the children.

“3,000 almajiri and 1,700 out-of-school adolescent girls identified for vocational skills acquisition were graduated for workforce readiness,” he said.

Supreme news reports that the programme which commenced in 2023 in five northern states, will end in April 2025.