ABUJA, Nigeria, 31 August 2019. The Read and Earn Federation for UNESCO (UNESCO REF) is to train the teachers of the Nigeria Police Force’s schools across the Federation, under a partnership with the Directorate of Police Force Education. The programme opens with a pilot cohort of 300 teachers in Abuja and will be delivered at no cost to the Nigeria Police. The partnership was commended by the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar Adamu, as he commissioned the Directorate’s new national headquarters at Dei-Dei, Abuja.

A new home for Police education

Un nouveau siège pour l’éducation policière

The Inspector-General commissioned the new office complex of the Directorate of Police Force Education, named the Mohammed Abubakar Adamu Force Education House. In his remarks he commended the Directorate for the progress recorded in Police secondary and primary schools across the country, welcomed its new partnership with UNESCO REF, and directed that the momentum be sustained.

The complex provides 24 offices sufficient to accommodate the entire staff of the Directorate. It was built by direct labour and financed from the internally generated revenue of the education unit. Present at the ceremony were the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of Administration and Finance, Usman Tilli Abubakar; the Deputy Inspector-General in charge of Operations, Abdulmajid Ali; the Deputy Inspector-General in charge of Logistics and Supply, Frederick Lakanu; and the President of the Police Officers’ Wives Association (POWA), Hajia Fatimah Adamu.

The partnership

Le partenariat

Under the partnership, UNESCO REF will train the teachers of Police schools in all States of the Federation. The first phase brings 300 teachers in Abuja into the programme, and the training is offered without cost to the Nigeria Police.

The Director of Police Force Education, DCP Rabi L. Umar, set out the scope of the offer. UNESCO REF, she said, “offered to train our teachers all over the federation starting with 300 teachers here in Abuja.”

The Directorate oversees 13 Police Secondary Schools, with two more due to begin academic activities in the following session, alongside 70 standard Police Children Schools and some 30 annexes across the States. Its expansion, DCP Umar noted, proceeds “in line with the present government’s policy on compulsory education from primary to secondary schools.”

The President of UNESCO REF

Le Président de l’UNESCO REF

The President of UNESCO REF, Prince Abdulsalami Ladigbolu-Oranmiyan, said the Federation regarded the programme as a duty owed to those who serve the nation:

“The children of the men and women who keep this nation safe deserve classrooms worthy of that service. When the teacher is strengthened, the school is strengthened, and when the school is strengthened, the Force and the nation it protects are strengthened with it. UNESCO REF will carry this programme to every State of the Federation, to the highest standard, and without cost to the Nigeria Police.”

The Inspector-General on the record

L’Inspecteur général, de source officielle

Inspector-General Adamu later placed the new headquarters within the Police management’s wider commitment to the education of the children of Police personnel. “In order to ensure the effective coordination of the educational activities of the force,” he said in December 2020, “we have also completed the national headquarters of the Force Education Unit in Abuja.” He added that he had been “empowering and motivating the Force Education Office” to extend the educational facilities of the Nigeria Police to more locations across the country.

Why it matters

Pourquoi c’est important

Police schools educate the children of officers posted across the Federation, often far from their home States. The quality of those schools bears directly on the welfare and morale of the Force. By investing in the teachers who serve them, the partnership addresses one of the factors that most determine what a child learns in school.

The engagement also marked the beginning of a sustained relationship between UNESCO REF and the Nigeria Police community, which has since extended to the Police Officers’ Wives Association and to the Federation’s work on the Nigeria Police and Nigerian youth.

ENDS