NEMA to train 25,000 students on disaster management

THE National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) yesterday disclosed its plan to train 25,000 students from public secondary schools yearly on disaster management in four states in the North.

This was made known to newsmen by the North West Zonal Coordinator of NEMA, Alhaji Musa Ilallah, while launching the programme on Basic Disaster Management at Dutse Model International School in Dutse, the Jigawa State capital.

He said 100 students had been selected from 2,500 public secondary schools in four states in the zone, adding that 400 students had been trained for the pilot programme in the four beneficiary states of Kaduna, Katsina, Kano and Jigawa.

According to the NEMA zonal coordinator, in 10 years time, about 250,000 students would have been trained in the project, adding that the programme was aimed at inculcating the culture of disaster risk reduction in school children.

Ilallah noted that the agency valued all stakeholders in disaster management, adding that it has become necessary to train all the segments of society to prepare for unpredictable weather conditions associated with climate change, which had caused ecological challenges like flood in Jigawa and other parts of the country.