Yobe Has 658,770 Out-Of-School Children - BESDA

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Yobe State has a total of 658,770 out-of-school children; one of the highest across the federation.

Focal Officer, Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) in the state, Samaila Bulami Machina, revealed this at the flagging off for the enrolment of 65,000 almajiris and vulnerable girls under the World Bank’s assisted programme in Damaturu, on Thursday.

He said Yobe State is among the 17 states to benefit from the BESDA initiative where 8 local government areas have been selected.

“The selected local government areas for almajiri enrolment are: Bade, Bursari, Damaturu, Machina, Nguru, Potiskum and Yusufari.

“While, Bade, Damaturu, Fika, Fine, Machina, Nangere, Nguru and Potiskum have been selected to benefit from the girl-child enrolment.

Under this arrangement, according to him 40,000 almajiris and 25,000 girl-child across 1,300 centres are targeted in the benefiting local government areas.

“The BESDA programme development objectives is to increase equitable access for out of school children, improve literacy and strengthening accountability for results in basic education in Nigeria”, he said.

Machina added that each of the enrollees would be given clothes, shoes, learning materials and food during the learning hours among other incentives, while the centres would be equip with sitting mats, first aid kits and instructors for the 9 months intensive literacy classes.

Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) is a National Operation Implemented at multiple levels to meet the demands of the structure of Universal Basic Education (UBE).

The US $ 611 million single largest investment by the world bank in sub-saharan Africa to Better Education Service Delivery for All in 17 focus states of Nigeria.

The states are: Yobe, Borno, Bauchi, Adamawa, Taraba, Gombe, Kaduna and Jigawa.

Others are; Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Niger, Ebonyi, Rivers and Oyo

It was gathered that the 5 years programme disburses upon achievement of results not inputs, hence a shift from paying for inputs to paying for results.