UNICEF and Benue set two-year target for 50,000 unenrolled children

The United Nations Children's Fund and the Benue State Government have unveiled a two-year plan to enrol more than 50,000 out-of-school children, launched at the headquarters of the State Universal Basic Education Board in Makurdi.

The plan, under Project BRACE-UP, was presented with the flag-off of teaching materials and sporting equipment for schools. UNICEF's Chief of Field Office in Enugu, Juliet Chiluwe, said the agency had provided 400 School-in-a-Box kits, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, and 330 tablets for teachers already trained in digital literacy to support the Nigerian Learning Passport.

Deputy Governor Sam Ode, who represented Governor Hyacinth Alia, said the plan covers eight areas including teacher training, community mobilisation, mapping and enrolment of out-of-school children, non-formal learning pathways and school infrastructure, and that the state was committing hundreds of millions of naira to it. The board's chairman, Grace Adagba, said 124 schools would receive sporting equipment. Insecurity and displacement have kept many Benue children out of classrooms, and the plan's success will turn on reaching those in camps and cut-off rural wards.