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International Day Of The Girl-child: Bauchi Govt Urged To Promote Digital Learning

Published

4 years ago

October 5, 2021

Editor

Our Reporter, Bauchi

Some female children in Bauchi State, have urged the state government to provide an enabling environment to promote digital learning, to enable the girls realise their full potentials.

Aishatu Abdullahi, President of the Girl-Child in the state, made the call at an event organised to mark the 2021 International Day of the Girl Child.

It could be recalled that on Dec. 19, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/170 to declare Oct. 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child.

The Day is aimed at encouraging girls to know their digital realities and the solutions they need to pave way to freedom of expression, joy and boundless potential.

The event was organised by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), as part of activities to celebrate the Day in the state.

Abdullahi, a student of the Government Day Secondary School, Sa’adu Zungur, Bauchi, said the call was imperative towards reducing the number of Out-of-School children in the state.

She also urged the state government to initiate a policy that would facilitate establishment of post basic school attached to every primary school across the state.

This, she said, would ensure continuity of learning and reduce the dropout rate in the state.

“The girls ask the state government to help in providing an enabling environment for teaching and learning with focus on digital and technical innovations.

“The girls also ask for recruitment of more female teachers in schools to encourage the retention of girls in schools.

“To also help in creating specific policy that will ensure availability of a junior secondary school attached to every primary school, to enhance continuation of learning and reduce the dropout rate of girls in schools,” Abdullahi said.

In her remarks, Hajiya Halima Umar, UNICEF Focal Person in SUBEB, said that Oct. 11 had been set aside by the UN, to promote the rights of girls and address challenges facing the girl-child.

Umar said that the day would enable diverse groups with the same goal to deliberate and act towards the promotion and advancement of the rights of the girls.

“This day also highlights gender inequalities that remain between boys and girls as well as highlights the various sorts of discriminations and abuse suffered by girls around the world,” she said.

According to her, the gender gap for internet users has grown from 11 per cent in 2013 to 17 per cent in 2019, adding that in a developing country like Nigeria, the percentage hoveres around 43 per cent.

On his part, Mr Tushar Rane, UNICEF Chief of Field Office, Bauchi, said that sequel to that closure of schools occasioned by the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, the UN agency in collaboration with the state government developed a strategy to ensure that students continue to learn while at home.

Rane, represented by Mr Raphael Aiyedipe, Bauchi UNICEF Education Specialist, said that the organisation realised that teaching and learning could be taken out of the four corners of classroom.

“This means teaching and learning can go on even while the children are at home and that is why the theme of this year is, “Digital Generation not without Girls”.

“We know that the world is becoming a global village and while at home you can learn and that has taught us a very good lesson.

“But there is the need for us to build the capacity of all the children to be digitally inclined,” he said.

Hajiya Aisha Mohammed, the Wife of the State Governor, said that the girls were truly of the digital age, adding that they should be prepared to present themselves anywhere as girls of the digital generation.

She charged them to take up the challenge of the digital age.

“Let me use this opportunity to call on you to be ready to exude your readiness to learn, use technology and become women in technology in a few years to come.

“Make Bauchi state proud by becoming software, hardware and competent engineers that will help to solve development and social challenges facing our state and country at large,” Mohammed said

The governor’s wife also urged parents to take the advantage of digital entrepreneurship as a means of retaining girl-child in schools and help them to attain their potential.

She also urged government at all levels to provide necessary support to assist the girl-child to become educationally empowered.

She, however, said that the Gov. Bala Mohammed’s administration had invested extensively in the education sector and would continue to do so to help the children to attain their potential.

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42 Killed In Israeli Attacks, Says Gaza’s Civil Defense

Published

14 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported at least 42 people killed in Israeli attacks on Sunday, as the Israeli army prepared for a new assault on the Palestinian territory’s largest city.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there had been several air strikes around Gaza City — which the military is gearing up to capture — including one in the Al-Sabra neighbourhood that killed eight people.

Attacks were also reported elsewhere across the territory, he said, with the “total tally currently rising to 42 dead”.

The army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the figure.

“The situation is extremely dangerous… Each day, each minute, there are bombings, martyrs, death and blood — we can’t take it anymore,” Al-Sabra resident Ibrahim Al-Shurafa told AFP, explaining strikes and shelling were ongoing.

“We don’t know where to go. Death follows us everywhere,” he added.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

The October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,686 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

AFP

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Venezuela Frees Eight Opposition Leaders

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14 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Venezuelan authorities released eight opposition leaders from jail early Sunday, including a former congressman and two Italian citizens, and granted house arrest to five others, an opposition politician said.

Most of those released had been charged with corruption in opposition-run mayoral offices.

Also set free was Congressman, Amirico de Grazia, detained amid protests that erupted during President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection in 2024.

“Today, several families are once again embracing their loved ones. We know there are many left, and we have not forgotten them; we continue to fight for everyone,” two-time former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said on X.

Opposition leaders Victor Jurado, Simon Vargas, Arelis Ojeda Escalante, Mayra Castro, Diana Berrio, Gorka Carnevalli, as well as Italian nationals Margarita Assenzo and de Grazia were released, Capriles said.

Nabil Maalouf, Valentin Gutierrez Pineda, Rafael Ramirez, Pedro Guanipa, and David Barroso were placed under house arrest.

The Italian government confirmed the release of de Grazia and Assenzo, who must appear in court to clarify the conditions of their release. It also vowed to continue working on securing the release of other detained Italians.

“We have always said, and we maintain it: we will talk to whomever we need to talk to so that there is not a single political prisoner in our Venezuela!” Capriles added.

AFP

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Russia, Ukraine Exchange Prisoners Of War, Civilians

Published

14 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Russia and Ukraine each sent back more prisoners of war on Sunday in the latest in a series of exchanges that have seen hundreds of POWs released this year, the two sides said.

Large-scale prisoner exchanges were the only tangible result of three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul between May and July.

They remain one of the few areas of cooperation between the two countries since Russia’s offensive began in 2022.

“On August 24, 146 Russian servicemen were returned from the territory controlled” by Kyiv, the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram.

“In exchange, 146 prisoners of war of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were transferred” to Ukraine, it added. Ukraine did not confirm any figures for the release.

Russia also said that “eight citizens of the Russian Federation—residents of the Kursk region, illegally detained” by Kyiv were also returned.

Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in August last year, seizing hundreds of square kilometres (miles) of territory in a major setback for the Kremlin.

Russia deployed thousands of troops from its ally North Korea as part of a counterattack but did not fully reclaim the region until April.

Among the Ukrainians released on Sunday was journalist Dmytro Khyliuk, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Khyliuk was kidnapped in the Kyiv region in March 2022. He is finally home in Ukraine,” Zelensky said on social media.

Also freed was former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolayenko, “who spent more than three years in captivity,” Zelensky’s aide Andriy Yermak wrote on X.

“In 2022, he was on the list for return, but Volodymyr voluntarily refused to be exchanged in favour of a seriously ill prisoner with whom he was sharing a cell in a Russian prison,” Yermak said.

AFP