Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello has reiterated the commitment of his administration to reduce the number of out-of-school children in the state.
He gave the assurance at the inauguration of the “National Identification and Enrolment Drive and Campaign on out-of-school Children,” by the Federal Ministry of Education, in Lokoja, the state capital.
Represented by the Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Wemi Jones, the governor stressed that he had taken education as the number one priority in the thematic areas of focus under his New Direction Administration.
According to him, the government regards education as the only channel through which we can emancipate our people on a sustainable basis.
He reassured of his determination to substantial investment in education in order to revamp the sector.
He noted that from the statistics available, Kogi State has the least out-of-school children among the 19 Northern states, due to the attention his administration had placed on education in the state.
He said he had given assent to the Kogi State Education Law 2020, which had made it to become a crime in the state for any child of school age to be found outside the school during the official school hours.
“When such a child is spotted, he or she will be arrested until the parents of that child come forth to explain why the child is not in school.
The Permanent Secretary, Sonny Echono said the Minister of Education, the idea of enrolling all school-age children seems like an uphill task, even as he assured that, with joint efforts, the challenge is surmountable.
Represented by the Deputy Director, Federal Ministry of Education Headquarters, Abuja, Mr Mohammed Sidi-Ali, Echono, reaffirmed the determination of the ministry to ensure that out-of-school children were returned to school, thereby reducing the number to its barest.
He urged stakeholders to ensure that children, especially those indigent children within their communities, were offered support and sponsored in their different vocations to achieve a better and safer community for all.
The materials distributed to the children included school bags, socks, sandals, uniforms and other forms of stationery.
Also yesterday, the Kogi State House of Assembly, passed the over N145.8 billion budget for the 2022 fiscal year into law.
The budget tagged “Budget of Accelerated Result” is made up of N90.1 billion representing N61.79 per cent recurrent expenditure and N55.7 billion representing N38.1 per cent capital expenditure for the 2022 fiscal year.
The Speaker, Prince Matthew Kolawole, described the 2022 budget as “very realistic” and met the timely approval of the House.
