FG to tackle accelerating number of out of school children in the country.

By.Lazarus Zakaa

Following the call made by two civil society groups on Nigerian Government to urgently tackle the accelerating
number of out-of-school children in Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Education has expressed its readiness to
intensify efforts in addressing the menace.

Groups under the auspices of Connected Development and FlexiSAF Foundation raised alarm over the increasing number of out-of-school children, and the detrimental effect it has on the future of Nigeria.

According to the partners, issues of insurgency, conflicts and unrest in the country, combined with deep-rooted poverty, and certain cultural factors especially in Northern Nigeria, have led to an increase in the number of out-of-school children.

In a reaction, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Mr Sonny Echono, while acknowledging a lack of
factual data as a stumbling block to planning, stated that in the last 4 years, the Ministry had worked with
partners to find empirical means of getting the actual figures right and devise the best ways of reducing the
number of out-of-school children to the barest minimum.

Mr Echono assured that the Ministry is working in partnership with the Universal Basic Education Commission
(UBEC), the National Population Commission (NPC), and the Bureau of Statistics to tackle the growing number of
children between ages 5 and 12 that are not in school.

CODE’s Chief Executive, Hamzat Lawal, stated.