Cleric Lauds Tinubu Over Promise To Tackle Out-of-School Children

A cleric and former governorship aspirant in Kwara State, Pastor Sunday Babalola, has praised President Bola Tinubu over his promise to address the high number of out-of-school-children in the country.
He equally urged the National Assembly to ensure that sufficient budgetary allocation is allocated to the education sector in the N47.9 trillion budget of the federal government for 2025.

LEADERSHIP reports that Tinubu promised to address the problem of out-of-school children during a dialogue with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palais des Élysées.

In a report released in September 2022, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) said there were 20million out-of-school children in Nigeria.

Babalola in his goodwill message when he received an award as The Outstanding Philanthropist 2024 by The Progressive Magazine in Abuja, said all tiers of government, corporate organisations, donor agencies and other philanthropists should be committed to reducing the number of out-of-school children in the country.

He noted that the menace posed security and developmental challenges to the country.

Babalola said: “The 20 million estimate for the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is an unsavoury development . It becomes more heartbreaking when considering that the out-of-school children in Nigeria, about 10.5 million of them aged 5-14 years are not in school as recorded by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 2020. This presents a breeding ground for more insecurity in the country.

“It is debilitating that Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world, making up one in five of the world’s out-of-school children and that the situation is particularly challenging in the north of the country, where the net attendance rate is only 53%.

“There must be concerted and collaborative efforts to address this ugly development as education is the bedrock of societal development and no country can develop without functional, efficient, quality and accessible education.

“I call on the three tiers of government as well as corporate organsiations, donor agencies and philanthropists to be more committed to educational advancement in Nigeria. We should address poor remuneration of educational staff and personnel as well as insufficient instructional and learning materials in the schools/institutions. Some pupils and students still study under dilapidated environments, even under shades. Such must not be allowed to continue to exist in this nation.”

He added: ” May I call on the federal government, the National Assembly, the 36 states in the country, the federal capital territory and the 774 local governments in the country to provide more budgetary allocations to the education sector.

“I particularly call on the National Assembly to ensure that sufficient budgetary allocation is accorded to the education sector in the N47.9 trillion budget of the federal government for 2025.”

The editor-in-chief, The Progressive Magazine, Idris Jibril, called for reawakening of reading culture among Nigerian youths. He stated that reading is essential for societal development.