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No fewer than 29,000 out-of-school children have graduated from literacy and numeracy catch-up club programmes in Kano State implemented by Save the Children International in collaboration with the state government. The beneficiaries are drawn from Ajingi, Makoda and Minjibir local government areas of the state under an initiative, funded by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) through the Partnership for Learning for All in Nigerian Education(PLANE) project, targeted at children aged 6 to 13 who have never been to school or dropped out and reintegrated into formal education. Speaking during the graduation ceremony flagged off at Minjibir town hall, Senior Education Advisor, Save the Children, Chrystal Holt, said the catch-up clubs aimed to improve children’s foundational learning within a short period. She explained that over 68,000 children have so far benefitted from the PLANE project in Kano, Kaduna and Jigawa states which aims to drastically reduce the number of out-of-school children through early learning and accelerated education models. According to her, “When this children started the programme, about 90 percent cannot identify letters, but after just 11 weeks — around 50 hours of learning — nearly half of them can read sentences. It’s unbelievable progress,” she said. Holt further added that the programme would help the transition of the children into the Accelerated Basic Education Programme (ABEP) — a government-led initiative that offers primary school equivalency to children who complete its Level 1 and Level 2 stages, enabling them to rejoin mainstream education. In his remarks, executive chairman of the Kano State Universal Basic Education Board(SUBEB), Malam Yusuf Kabir, who was represented by the director of Social Mobilisation, Balarabe Jazuli, commended Save the Children and its partners for complementing government efforts to improve access to quality education. He said, “These 29,000 children are now ready to continue their education in formal schools. This is a major step toward reducing the number of out-of-school children in our communities and is in line with the state government effort in reducing the out of school children in the state.” The event witnessed the distribution of school uniforms, writing materials, schools bags and certificates among others to beneficiaries.
