FG Tackling Out-of-School Children Crisis, Says Minister

John Shiklam in Kaduna

The Minister of State for Education, Mr. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, says the Federal Government has made
remarkable achievements in addressing the challenges of out-of-school children.

According to him, the $611 million disbursed to 17 states in 2016 to tackle the phenomenon made impacts.

Speaking to journalists during the graduation ceremony of Hauwa’u Memorial School, Kaduna, Nwajiuba said there were about 13,000,600 out-of-school children in the country when President Muhammadu Buhari came to power in 2015.

He said in 2016, the president obtained a facility of about $611 million, which was disbursed to states that are most affected by the phenomenon.

“When I joined the cabinet in 2019, I have gone round these states to see what work they have done with it. The governors had done very well with the resources that they were given, trying to pull back some of the children out of school,” he explained. “So we’ve made remarkable progress along those lines, but a lot of works still remains undone.”

According to him, the number of out-of-school children is contracting a little bit because there is also population growth.

He said the government had provided everything required to tackle the problem, stressing that cultural and religious beliefs remain obstacles.

“There are almost 135,000 primary schools in Nigeria. So it is not a lack of a place to go to. The out-of-school children phenomena actually exacerbated insecurity. There were issues that have been at the base of out-of-school children.

“Those issues are cultural, religious, traditional and in some cases access. The federal government has tried to address them and continues to address them.

“In Katsina State, we have 22 per cent reduction. In Kaduna, where a lot of progress has been made already, we have nearly a 30 per cent reduction. In Yobe, we now have a massive job because the insecurity in the place has reduced a little bit. In Bauchi, we have a larger percentage. So the percentage varies across the states, especially in the North-East and the North-West.”