We ‘ve Reduced  Out-of-School Children  from 500,000 to 50,000 in Adamawa, Says Fintiri

Daji Sani in Yola

The Governor of Adamawa State, Rt Hon.  Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, has said his administration has contributed to the reduction of 50,000 out-of- school children to a bearable number in the state

He further explained  that  his administration through its free school feeding programme under the free education policy tackled the problem of out- of-school children in the state

 Fintiri, disclosed this while addressing electorate in Hong Local Government Areas ( LGA)  at his campaign engagement and added that the number of out of school children in the state had drastically reduced over the course of the last three years since he assumed  office in 2019.

He explained that UNICEF data released in 2019 showed the  state had over 500,000 children of school going age were out of the school system.

He, however, noted the figure has drastically reduced to less than 50,000 due to the priority the administration had given to education.

He said: “ When we came in 2019, UNICEF said, Adamawa State has over 500,000 out of school children. But in three years, we did our best to re-integrate this out of school children into the formal school system and today that population has dropped to less than 50,000.”

Governor Fintiri also promised to re-integrate the remaining 50,000  children into the school system before the end of his tenure. The governor, who’s seeking re-election for a second term had promised to use the remaining six months in his first four-year term to accomplish that goal.

He said  basic education had received a boost under his administration, through its free education policy, where pupils in public schools also receive free meals, as one of the cardinal programmes, under his 11-point agenda.