Out-of-school Children Drops By 1m In North East – UNICEF

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has revealed a significant drop in the number of out-of-school children in the North East region from over three million to two million.

UNICEF stated this yesterday in Maiduguri, Borno State at the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Accelerated Funding (GPE-AF) project’s launch for North East states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.

Its chief of Borno Field Office, Gilmar Teddy Cruz, attributed the progress to the implementation of the GPE-AF project, which aimed to increase access to education for 1.5 million out-of-school children in the region.

Cruz said the GPE-AF project built on the success of the previous GPE Accelerated Funding (AF) 2020-2023, improved education access and learning outcomes for over 180,000 conflict-affected children in 24 local government areas across Borno , Adamawa and Yobe states.

“We are pleased to see a decline in the number of out-of-school children in the North East. Our partnership with the ministries of education has provided a conducive atmosphere to address the learning crisis, and we will continue to work together to solve this problem,” he said.

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He said education stakeholders from Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states governments in collaboration with UNICEF gathered to discuss the project’s objectives and implementation plans.

He said the workshop focused on enhancing collaboration and coordination among stakeholders to ensure effective implementation and improve education outcomes for children in emergencies in North-East Nigeria.

A representative of the Borno State government, Professor Bulama Kagu, said, “We have policies in place to address the issue of out-of-school children, and we have succeeded in reducing the numbers, although we still face challenges.”

Adamawa State commissioner for education, Dr Umar Garba, stressed the need for children to be in school to have a good future.

He said the state government is providing enrollment campaigns to encourage out-of-school children to return to school, targeting both children and parents.