United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, UNICEF in partnership with the Benue state Government has inaugurated a steering committee on Safe Schools in the state to ensure safety of learners in about six hundred schools across the state.
At the inauguration on Thursday in Makurdi, Commissioner for Education and Knowledge Management, Doctor Fredrick Kyaan, commended the initiative, describing it as a proactive step to addressing the attacks on school children which he said are prevalent in other parts of the country.
The commissioner who said the committee is wide in scope, called for its support to achieve maximum results, expressing confidence in the ability of UNICEF who he said is experienced in managing security issues to take the lead in addressing insecurity in schools in the state.
Earlier, the UNICEF’s Education Specialist, Enugu Field Office, Doctor Agatha Nzeribe, said the Organization has been in the state since Monday to train members of the committee drawn from Ministries, Departments and Agencies as well as Civil Society Organizations and security personnel among others.
She said the nineteen member committee will among other things liaise with the State Universal Basic Education Board, and all other Ministries Departments and Agencies relevant for the implementation of the Safe Schools Policy, coordinate the domestication of National School Policy in the state as well as other partners and stakeholders involved in the implementation.
Doctor Nzeribe, noted that sub-committees drawn from Local Government Areas would also be constituted to reach out to the various communities in preventing and managing crises which may erupt in and around schools, adding that the committee would be meeting every three month as the state Ministry of Education which is the lead partner would be meeting on a monthly basis to monitor progress.
Some of the participants at the three-day training, Emmanuella Akese and Doctor Christogonus Nweke who lauded the initiative, also shared their experiences.
Correspondent reports that high point of the event was the inauguration of the committee by the commissioner for Education and Knowledge Management.
