The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has said its efforts in the last three decades have seen about 15,000 out-of-school children reintegrated into the formal school system across Katsina State.

UNICEF also said a total of 112 Tsangaya or Islamic schools were integrated into the formal or Western education system across the state within the same period.

Chief of UNICEF Field Office Kano, Rahama Farah, stated this in Kano State yesterday during a zonal commemoration of the World Children’s Day and unveiling of the Nigerian Child 2025 Report.

The event, organised by UNICEF in collaboration with the Kano State Radio Corporation, was attended by stakeholders from Kano, Katsina and Jigawa states, where a children’s panel session was organised and child-related matters discussed.

Farah said UNICEF’s collaboration with the Katsina State government has resulted in an increase in budgetary allocation for the control of acute malnutrition.

Similarly, he said the collaboration has seen the state attain the status of being Open-Defecation-Free (ODF), enabling Katsina to become the second state to achieve such a status after Jigawa.

He also said collaboration with Jigawa and Kano state governments has produced encouraging results in the area of children’s rights.

According to him, collaboration between UNICEF and the Jigawa state government has resulted in the Masaki Initiative, a community-driven initiative to address child malnutrition in children under five. This has become a model for other states.