The new chairman of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Universal Basic Education Board (FCT UBEB), Prof Abdullahi Mohammed, said he is adopting strategies to mop up out-of-school children from the streets of the FCT.
Mohammed who stated this while speaking with the press on his vision in Abuja yesterday, said he will ensure every child acquire basic education in the capital city.
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To achieve this, he said the board has already activated community based engagement to ensure that communities work together with the board to talk to the parents and ensure that every child within the community is taken to school.
“There are a lot of out of school children, especially in this part of the world. When you go to the street in the north, you see Almajiri roaming the street in large numbers whereas the same age group are in the class, so it gives you a lot of restless nights.
“So, my vision is that as far as FCT is concerned, we must do our best to mop out every child from the street and make sure they have basic education.
“Already, I have activated community-based engagement to ensure that we talk to these communities and see how they can work with us to talk to the parents and ensure that every child within the community is taken to school.”
Speaking on the efforts towards addressing shortage of teachers in FCT, he said since assuming office, he is working on the approval of over 1,500 teachers into the system who were shortlisted two years ago.
“Two years ago, we shortlisted but it was not approved, the issue has to do with the Federal Character Commission, FCT administration but since I came in that has been settled and they assured us that within the next one or two weeks the names will be released.
“We are not opening up a new recruitment. All we are doing now is to get the names, give them appointment letters and train them. 1,500 will go a long way,” he added.
The UBEB boss further said people can now visit its portal to obtain credible information, saying that it is working actively.