Bauchi women seek empowerment to reduce out-of-school children

Some women in Masori community of Alkaleri Local Government Area in Bauchi State have advocated for community driven empowerment programme to address out-of-school children in the state.

A cross section of the women, made the call in an interview with our correspondent, on the sidelines of media engagement exercise organised by UNICEF, on Monday in Alkaleri.

Mrs Fatima Mohammed, a housewife, said the call was imperative to encourage mothers to enrol their wards in school.

She said that women had limited resources to support the education needs of their children hence the need to empower them.

“Women in Masori and other communities have no money or resources to support the education of their children to promote basic literacy in the interest of human development.

“Some husbands have neglected their responsibility of ensuring child right to education to womenfolk.

“A community driven empowerment initiative will improve social and economic status of mothers to enable them to send their children to school,” she said.

Also, Mrs Lami Ibrahim, a mother of six, attributed high number of out-of-school children to lack of conducive teaching and learning environment as well as instructional materials in schools.

“Women are left with the responsibility of providing educational materials and financing child education.

“We don’t have means of livelihood, and the trend forced most of us to send our children to hawk on the streets to get money for their education,” she said.

On her part, Mrs Talatu Ibrahim, the Head, Alkakeri Community Education Volunteers, said that they conducted house-to-house mobilisation to encourage school enrollment in the area.

She said the exercise had encouraged many parents to enrol their wards in school and discourage street hawking.