Nigeria Accounts For 12.4% Sub-Saharan Africa Out-of-school Children – Minister

Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has said that Nigeria accounts for 12.4 percent of the out-of-school children in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Represented by the director of Basic Education, Federal Ministry of Education, Mrs. Olatunji Davis, the minister said:

“Our education challenge is an open secret; out of 258 million out-of-school children worldwide, an estimated 62 million are in Sub-Saharan Africa.

“Nigeria is said to account for 12.4 per cent  of the out-of-school children in sub-Saharan Africa”.

Speaking yesterday in Benin during the 2023  Education week with the theme ” Education for Alahgogaro: investing in quality education and access for our children and youth”, the minister said the 2018 national personnel audit estimated that 10.5 million children aged five to 14 were not in school, adding that the figures has been further exacerbated by the increased learning poverty caused by closure of schools and non-return of children to school following the global COVID-19 pandemic.

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He said to ensure access to quality basic education for the Nigerian child, the  president’s June 12 declaration on the enforcement of free and compulsory basic education for the first nine years of schooling underscores Nigeria’s commitment to achieving Universal Basic Education (UBE) as enshrined in the UBE Act of 2004.

He listed the strategic programs to achieve the federal government commitment to include the Better Education Service Delivery (BESDA) , Adolescent Girls’ Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE), IDEAS Program, and the Transforming Education Systems at State Level (TESS) and the various interventions of the federal ministry of education at the Federal and States and through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and other agencies of the Federal Ministry of Education.

He stated that a major policy priority for the medium-term national development plan still remains to improve access to quality education in the country.

The minister however commended the Edo state government for improving the education sector and charged other states to follow suit.

Earlier, the Edo State commissioner for education, Dr. Joan Oviawe, said the education week was to showcase the progress made in Edobest in the last six years and also what to do moving forward in the learning of our children