Gombe State has intensified efforts to curb its alarming out-of-school children crisis, with the first lady, Asma’u Inuwa Yahaya flagging off a free registration programme for children in Gombe local government area.
Official records show that the state has no fewer than 787,619 out-of-school children.
In response, the state government launched an enrolment campaign through the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), in collaboration with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and UNICEF, to cut the figure by half before 2030.
The initiative offers free registration and learning materials to children across all 11 local government areas in the state. Each LGA is tasked with enrolling at least 20,000 pupils, setting a collective target of 220,000 children.
At the launch in Gombe, the first lady appealed to parents to use the opportunity to enrol their children, stressing Governor Inuwa Yahaya’s commitment to child welfare through education, healthcare and nutrition.
The SUBEB chairman, Babaji Babadidi, said the enrolment drive goes beyond numbers. According to him, it aims to promote behavioural change that ensures not only enrolment but also retention, completion and smooth transition of pupils within the education system.
The commissioner for Education, Aishatu Maigari, described the initiative as “a bold step” towards bridging the education gap and advancing sustainable development. She called on local government chairmen to ensure children remain in school until they complete secondary education.
Maigari said with the enrolment drive, Gombe State is positioning education as the backbone of development while tackling one of the most urgent social challenges.
The programme is expected to give thousands of children in rural and urban communities access to formal education, which stakeholders say could reshape the state’s future.
