How Mothers’ association is getting children off the streets in Kano

Thirteen-year-old Habiba Ghali Usman is a Primary One pupil of Warure Special Primary School in Gwale Local Government Area Kano State. Habiba told Daily Trust on Sunday that, “I was not attending a formal school. I only attended Islamiyah school, but I was enrolled in a formal school less than a year ago by some […]

Thirteen-year-old Habiba Ghali Usman is a Primary One pupil of Warure Special Primary School in Gwale Local Government Area Kano State.

Habiba told Daily Trust on Sunday that, “I was not attending a formal school. I only attended Islamiyah school, but I was enrolled in a formal school less than a year ago by some women.

“I am happy to be in school because I am now united with my friends who had been in school. I always admired them in their school uniforms whenever I saw them going to school, and now that I am enrolled, I am happy because I know formal education is good.”

Habiba who is from a family of eight said her desire was to become a teacher so that she “can help other children in my community to be educated.”

For eight-year-old Ali Mustapha who dreams of becoming a military officer, he also got enrolled into school by an organisation called, The Mothers’ Association.

Ali who is also in Primary One said he was happy to be in school and loved the teaching he received.

On what he likes about being in a formal school, Ali said, “I love the fact that I wear uniform and a new footwear given to me by the women, and I can also follow my friends to play in school.”

However, Ali wants the school to provide food to help them stay back in school, saying, “Initially, my friends used to eat in school, but now there is no food.”

About a year ago, Habiba and Ali were among the about 10.5 million out of school children in Nigeria, but are now in school courtesy of a group of women called Mothers’ Association.

The Mothers’ Association is a part time School-Based Management Committee (SBMC) set up by the Federal Government (FG) as an essential link between schools and communities. SBMC assists schools with basic needs and supports them with improved teaching and learning environment.

The members of SBMC are drawn from school teachers, traditional and religious institutions, artisans, community-based organisations, old pupils of schools and women organisations.

The SBMC intervention programme is a strategy adopted by the state governments of Kano, Bauchi, Zamfara, Niger, Katsina and Sokoto to reduce the out-of-school children figure in partnership with UNICEF and supported by the Department for International Development (DFID).

With the North East and North West identified as the geo-political zones with the lowest literacy rates of people between ages of 12 and 24 with 47.5 per cent and 47.8 per cent respectively, the Mothers’ Association is taking steps towards reducing the out-of-school children in their communities and enhancing the literacy rate.

The Coordinator of Mothers’ Association, Umma Ahamed Abubakar, while speaking in Gwale Local Government Area of Kano State, said many kids weren’t in school and that the association had to go to different communities to enlighten them on the importance of education.

Umma said, “Sometimes parents say it is due to poverty; so we ask them to give us the kids to bring to school and that we will take-up their responsibility.”

She said Mothers’ Association had been able to make impact by changing people’s perception on formal education, adding that, “We have brought 44 boys and 57 girls back to school in collaboration with the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) and other SBMC members.”

Umma further said, “Our initial challenge was that when we approached parents to release their wards to come to school, they requested for money from us or asked what we would give them in return, but we looked for a way to enlighten them on the advantages of their children being educated, using some of us as role models in some cases.”

She added that her association also encouraged parents who insisted their children had to hawk to allow the children come to school with their wares; to sell them in the school environment during break and after they closed from school.

On how the Mother’s Association raises funds to get the children back to school, the Vice Coordinator of the association, Magajiya Ismail Abubakar, said they met and drafted out the problems that they needed to address.

Magajiya said, “We go round to solicit for funds from donor agencies, individuals and business owners to raise money, and sometimes we raise money among ourselves; like N100 each, to make uniforms and provide foot wears for the kids.”

The Mothers’ Association also plays a major role in providing learning materials to schools and assisting in carrying out notable projects within the schools to enhance teaching and learning.

The Chairman of the Publicity Committee Warure Special Primary School PTA, Tijjani Ibrahim, in an interview, said more than 50 per cent of the work carried out in the school was done by the Mothers’ Association because its members were mothers.

Ibrahim said, “Some of them are elite and others are not educated, but they come to school together, they contribute money among themselves and provide uniforms for the children. I witnessed about 150 children getting uniforms from the mothers.”

The Mothers’ Association was able to provide a computer room with eight computers, and with other SBMC members, they also sank a mechanised borehole, and connected the Warure school to the national grid, Ibrahim said.

He further said, “They generate the money to carry out the projects through some donations, there are some donor agencies that give some amounts to SBMC.”

He added that there were 96 orphans and 91 less privileged children in the school being taken care of by the mothers.

He, therefore, urged the Federal Government to give special attention to orphans and the less privileged children whose parents could not cater for and to also take such children from the community and take responsibility of them.

He also appealed to government to provide more furniture, teaching and learning materials and return school feeding to boost enrolment.

Earlier, the Director of Social Mobilisation of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Bello Kagara, in his presentation at the SBMC workshop in Kano organised by the United Nations Children Education Fund (UNICEF) in partnership with DFID, said funding of education in Nigeria was inadequate and thus needed active participation of key actors.

Kagara said education reform targeted participatory approach and had need to engage the grassroots through the SBMC, and that it was the closest structure that could assist in delivering basic education in the country.

He said at the beginning, the N1m given to SBMC communities was achieving results and saving government a larger costs and as a result the communities could now access from N250,000 to N7m to carry out projects in schools after providing the counterpart which could either be in kind or in cash, and that it would help give states equality and help communities monitor the schools by being fully involved.

He added that the reason behind the involvement of women associations, religious and community leaders and other parties who had passion for education was to boost basic education in the country.