Benin/Access and retention of vulnerable children in school: The Government and development partners offer school kits to school children

There are a total of 531,824 learners including 483,531 primary school children and 48.293 secondary school girls, from the departments of Alibori, Borgou and Zou and the municipalities of Matéri, Natitingou Tanguiéta, Kérou, Copargo, Djakotomey, Klouékanmè, Lalo, Toviklin, Sô-Ava, Aguégués and Kétou, have benefited from school kits containing khaki uniforms, school bags, notebooks, pens and pencils, and activity notebooks to learn and succeed in the best conditions

The official ceremony of the distribution of these school supplies which took place at the Town Hall of Parakou on Tuesday 14 September 2021, was chaired by the Minister of Nursery and Primary Education, Mr. Salimane KARIMOU, Chief Minister in charge of Education, in the presence of the Representatives of the Technical and Financial Partners, namely the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Affairs.The official ceremony of the distribution of these school supplies, which took place at the Parakou Town Hall on Tuesday 14 September 2021, was chaired by the Minister of Nursery and Primary Education, Mr. Salimane Karimou, Chief Minister of Education, in the presence of representatives of technical and financial partners such as UNICEF, the World Bank, the Global Partnership for Africa's Development (GPAD) and the World Bank: UNICEF, the World Bank, the Global Partner for Education (PME), the Swiss Cooperation, the Japanese Cooperation, Plan International Benin and Educo. Thanks to them, all the beneficiaries will receive free of charge all the contents of the kits intended for them, for a total amount of 1,438,299,680 FCFA.

For the Representative of the World Bank, Mr Hyacinthe GBAYE, the distribution of the school kits is part of a set of activities planned to improve the indicators in the communes.He is therefore pleased to note an improvement in the quality of education in the country. He is therefore pleased to note a significant improvement in schooling indicators. He also congratulated the Government of Benin on the encouraging results achieved in the difficult context of Covid-19, on its ever-increasing efforts to build classrooms, recruit teachers and on the extensive canteen programme.It congratulated the Government of Benin for the encouraging results in a difficult context of Covid-19, for the ever-increasing efforts in terms of building classrooms, recruiting teachers and for the vast school canteen programme, which not only enabled children to stay in school but above all provided them with a balanced diet for their health. Access to school and retention of students until the end of the cycle are important to increase the completion rate of the cycle.The access to school and the retention of pupils until the end of the cycle are important to increase the completion rate of the school cycle, especially the primary cycle, a prerequisite for sustainable literacy in adulthood.

Mrs. Djanabou MAHONDE, UNICEF Representative, leader of the Technical and Financial Partners of the education sector in Benin, said in her speech that this operation of distribution of school supplies aims at improving the quality of education in Benin.In her speech, she said that this operation of distribution of school supplies aims at reducing the expenses incurred by families to send their children to school in order to strengthen the access and retention of children in school. She called for remaining mobilized to find sustainable solutions for, on the one hand, those 2 million children in Benin who are still out of school and, on the other hand, for school dropout which persists in particular for girls despite all the investments made and the commitment of the government and its partners.

In his launching speech, Minister Salimane KARIMOU reiterated to all development partners, the deep gratitude of the Government and the entire Beninese educational community for the efforts made without the support of the government and its partners. In his speech, Minister Salimane KARIMOU reiterated to all development partners the deep gratitude of the Government and the entire Beninese educational community for their unceasing efforts in favour of the Beninese educational system. He reassured them that his ministry will continue to play its role to guarantee the right of children to an inclusive and quality education in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

The beneficiaries, through their spokesperson, Imane LAWANI, a pupil in CM1 class at EPP OCBN2, thanked the Government of Benin and development partners for these gifts. They promised to make good use of the school kits.

The ceremony was attended by the 2nd Deputy Mayor of Parakou, Mr. Moustapha OROU-GANKOU and the Prefect of Borgou, Mr. Djibril MAMA CISSÉ.

Source: www.gouv.bj