The authorities of Rivers State Universal Basic Education Board (RSUBEB), Port Harcourt, say a total of 36,015 pupils across the 23 local government areas of the state have been enrolled into the BESDA programme in the state
The Director, Research, Planning and Statistics of the state UBE board, Evangelist Emmanuel Ogbugo disclosed this while giving the scorecard of the programme during a one-day training/capacity workshop organised by the board to create and train LGA safeguards regulatory team held at St Andrew’s Anglican Primary School in Port Harcourt over the weekend.
Ogbugo, while giving the scorecard, said out of the 36,015 pupils enrolled into the programme, 18,430 were girls’ while 17,585 were boys, adding that the figure represents 32% of the 110,654 out-of-school children in the state as captured in the NEDS 2015 data report
According to him,1,225 facilitators have so far been engaged ,14,400 jolly phonics books distributed , 40,000 free school uniforms, ,40,000 free school sandals as well as 1800 other supplementary reading books have also been distributed across the 15 participating LGAs in the state.
He averred that the achievements recorded by the state BESDA team was due to collaborative support from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and civil society organisations in the state, adding that over 13.2 million children were out of school across the country.
He described the BESDA programme as introduced by the World Bank, the Federal Government, UBEC and the state government as an interventionist approach to ensure that every child in the country has access to education .
“All hands must be on deck to ensure that those roaming the streets are brought back to school because they are the ones constituting environmental problems in the society,” he stated.
Also speaking, the Director, Social Mobilisation (DSM) and the BESDA team leader in the state, Mr Ogwe Ibe in his opening remarks said the essence of the workshop was to train the safeguards regulatory teams across the 23 local government areas on the BESDA environmental and social safeguard rules with regards to BESDA programme and its implementation
He said similar workshops had been held to disseminate proper information on BESDA environmental and social safeguards programme, adding that BESDA programme was designed to enable every child have access to education and reduce environmental hazards in the society.
Delivering a lecture on the topic: Addressing Violence or Abuse ‘Against Children,’ the Director, Legal/Administration, Barr Karibi George said violence against children ranges from emotional, physical and sexual abuses, adding that children were at risk of violence from other students, teachers or older youths either at school or at home.

By: Akujobi Amadi