By Dayo Adesulu

NO fewer than 46 schools in northern Nigeria will benefit from Oando Foundation and Educate A Child, EAC, partnership in the ongoing quest to provide quality primary education to 60,000 out-of-school children in Nigeria.

This was disclosed by the  Head, Oando Foundation, Mrs. Adekanla Adegoke during a press conference held at the Oando Corporate Office, Lagos.

She said “Adamawa, Bauchi, FCT, Kaduna, Katsina, Kwara, Niger, Plateau, Taraba and Sokoto states will benefit from it in the north because there are substantial number of out of school children.’’

She disclosed that EAC will co-fund the projects in the 46 schools across nine states, through Oando Foundation’s Adopt-a-School Initiative (AASI).

According to her, the AASI currently supports increased access to basic education in 63 public primary schools via infrastructure renovation, scholarships, ICT, and capacity building for teachers and community members.

Under the EAC partnership, she explained that the AASI will be expanded to 28 additional schools in Northern Nigeria, where there are  substantial number of out-of-school children.

Her words: “Alongside EAC, this partnership presents the Foundation with a unique opportunity to achieve its clear-sighted goal of providing improved access to quality basic education for children of school age in Nigeria.

‘’We are presently supporting 63 schools through our AASI, and we are prioritizing Northern Nigeria for this project. We believe that by addressing and acting on the multiple causes of exclusion in Northern Nigeria, the joint intervention will guarantee enrolment, retention, and improvement in the quality of learning thereby increasing opportunities for children in the region to attend school. “

Explaining the global support on the laudable initiative, Adegoke pointed out that Oando Foundation and EAC, a programme of the Education Above All Foundation, Qatar have partnered to provide quality primary education to 60,000 out-of-school children in Nigeria by 2018.

Lamenting the rate of out-of school children, she said: ‘’With 10.5 million Nigerian children out of school, the largest number globally according to UNESCO, the launch of the three-year project is a timely intervention regarding the issues of access to quality education, enrolment of OOSC, and an integrated school environment.

She explained that Educate A Child is a global program launched by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser of Qatar which aims to significantly reduce the number of children worldwide who are denied their right to education.

She averred that OF and EAC are both committed to ensuring children deprived of their fundamental right to primary education are given a chance to learn, even in the most difficult circumstances. ‘’These children, the majority of whom live in the most marginalized areas of society, have no access to quality primary education due to the tremendous obstacles they face including extreme poverty, limited resources, poor infrastructure, natural disasters, living in areas affected by conflict, and many other factors that make education impossible,” she added.