COVID-19: GPE to Establish 1,000 Learning Hubs for 550,000 Pupils in Nasarawa

By Igbawase Ukumba

The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) is to establish 1,000 learning hubs for 550,000 pupils in Nasarawa State to bridge learning gap among children.

The initiative was conceived as a result of the long stay at home during the COVID-19 outbreak.

This was disclosed yesterday by the Programme Officer of Slum2School Africa, an organisation implementing the GPE project in Nasarawa State, Mr. Jephthah Daleng, during a one-day media dialogue on Back-to-School Campaign and School Safety in Nasarawa State organised by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Lafia.

Daleng said: “The GPE seeks to establish 1,000 learning hubs for 550,000 pupils, train 7,500 teachers, train 1,000 School Based Management Committees (SMBCs) and train 2,000 community volunteers.

“The project is part of the organisation’s Continuing Learning Through Alternative Home and Community-based Platform where in Nasarawa State it is been implemented in two LGAs of Lafia and Nasarawa.”

The Programme Manager explained that the intervention would be benefitted by pupils in Primary 1 – 6 in the two LGAs, build capacity of teachers in public primary schools and strengthen the capacity of School Based Management Committees (SBMCs) members in communities.

“This programme seeks to improve the learning of 97,242 pupils in Nasarawa State, train 285 teachers who will in turn train some teachers on providing psychosocial support to pupils and also train 350 SBMCs in the two LGAs respectively to provide support on hygiene and sanitation and provide sensitisation on gender based-violence.

“In all, 77 learning hubs have been established in Nasarawa LGA and 100 hubs in Lafia LGA and the key focus of learning is literacy and numeracy,” Daleng added.

In his goodwill message, the Chief of Kaduna UNICEF Field Office, Mr. Zachary Adam, expressed readiness to partner with the media to reduce out of school children and community learning approach in the state.

He said UNICEF was also partnering with governments in four states namely, Kaduna, Niger, Kwara and Nasarawa, on the initiative towards ensuring zero out of school related cases.

“I assure you of partnership with UNICEF so that we can achieve results and take advantage of very few initiatives that are ongoing to improve our education in a way that the system absorbs 100 per cent of children, irrespective of their cultural background and social position, whether they are from rich or poor families.

“If we achieve the objective of bringing our daughters and boys to school, we can be fully assured that this school target development that we are aiming at achieving for Nasarawa and Nigeria will become a reality,” Adam maintained.

On his part, the Education Officer of Kaduna UNICEF Office, Mr. Francis Elisha, said UNICEF was currently working with traditional and religious leaders, as well as other stakeholders in Lafia and Nasarawa LGAs, to ensure that all children were back to school irrespective of their social status.