Benue State Governor, Fr. Hyacinth Alia has launched the historic “Building Rights to Access and Compulsory Education for Un-enrolled Pupils (BRACE-UP)” in Benue State even as he declares free education in all public schools in the state beginning from Basic One to Basic Nine.
BRACE-UP is a sustainable, evidence-based strategy to ensure that every Benue child is enrolled, retained, and empowered through quality basic education.
According to Fr. Alia, BRACE-UP will mobilise community leaders, parents, and teachers to identify out-of-school children, create flexible learning pathways, and track each learner’s progress from enrollment to completion, Technical Adviser to the Governor on Media, Publicity, and Strategic Communication, Chief Solomon Iorpev says in a statement.
The Governor assured that Benue State, under his watch, will continue to ensure catalytic funding as well as policy regulations that mirror the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Act and prioritise compulsory, free basic education for all Benue children.
Last year, the Fr. Alia administration recruited no fewer than 9,700 teachers and has maintained regular payment of salaries, has implemented the harmonised retirement age for teachers and is determined to ensure that no child of school age is left out of school.
The decision to make basic education free in the state according to the governor is to make basic education acessible to children of the poor and vulnerable in society and prepare a solid foundation for the leaders of tomorrow.
He, therefore, called on parents, traditional and religious leaders, and other stakeholders to help his administration in enforcing the free and compulsory basic education, saying the future of the state depended on the young ones and it behoved the leaders to prepare them for it.
The governor was conferred with the Golden Award for Education and Teacher Friendliness by the national leadership of the Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), led by Comrade Audu Titus Amba.
NUT said the recognition is in recognition of the efforts of the Fr. Alia-led administration in revitalising basic education in Benue State.
