Oyo govt. inaugurates safeguard team for out-of-school children
Oyo State Government has inaugurated an environmental and social safeguard team to ensure the implementation of Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) programme in the state.
Executive Chairman, Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Dr Nureni Adeniran, said this at a two-day orientation for the newly-constituted local team in Ibadan on Tuesday.
He said that the essence of setting up the team was to ensure that out-of-school children, who were captured and re-enrolled, were taught in a child-friendly environment and without any form of threat.
He said that part of the team’s priorities, under the supervision of the board, was to strategise and consolidate on the gains of the ongoing BESDA programme in the state.
Adeniran highlighted some of the priorities of the team to include: promotion of children rights in their locality, reporting cases of child abuse in schools and reporting adults vulnerable to radicalisation.
Other priorities, according to him, are to enhance compliance with safeguarding procedures and ensuring effective use of grievance redress mechanism boxes.
He said that members of the team were selected from across the 21 BESDA Focus Local Government Areas, which will help reduce the adverse socio-environmental impact that might arise during the implementation of development projects.
“The state government hopes to motivate and retain these innocent children in the formal school system for a functional education to ensure an all-inclusive participation in the educational sector,” the SUBEB boss said.
Adeniran urged members of the team to face the challenges ahead with courage and sincerity of purpose so as to meet the high expectation of the people.
“The idea of environmental and social safeguards was conceived in BESDA as an operational procedure, designed to mitigate and minimise the adverse environmental and social impacts that may arise in the implementation of development projects.
“Environmental and social safeguards also have pro-active dimensions to try to increase the possibility of development projects delivering better outcomes for people and the environment.
“We see you as leaders in your assigned duties. We, therefore, expect you to discharge your duties with good sense of judgment, strong will and dedication,” he said.
Adeniran further reiterated the Gov. Seyi Makinde-led administration’s commitment to ensuring that out-of-school children in the state were reduced to the barest minimum, as they accessed qualitative education.
