Federal Govt Launches At-Risk-Children Project In Gombe

The Federal Government has launched at-risk-children project in Gombe State.

According to The Nation, Gombe State Governor, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya on Monday berated the Almajiri system of education in the North describing it as lacking employable skills and posing social and economic challenges to themselves.

Yahaya spoke at the launch of the At-Risk-Children Project (ARC-P) in Gombe, where he said over 700,000 out-of-school children are spread across the 11 local government areas of the state against 550,000 estimated figures of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

“The Almajiri system as practised today is characterised by child neglect, abuse, social exclusion and chronic poverty thus churning out young people with little or no formal education and lacking employable skills thereby posing significant social and economic challenges to themselves, the government and the society at large.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has further highlighted the issue with the deportation of thousands of Almajiri children from different states without any protective safeguards despite their multiple vulnerabilities,” he said.

The Governor added that the girl-child population in the state are mostly exposed to street hawking, child labour and often end up in commercial domestic services rather than the pursuit of formal education.