FG must address 9m Almajiri, other out-of-school children – Don

A lecturer at the Department of Sociology, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University (IBBUL) Lapai, Niger State, Prof. Steve Nwokeocha, has said the number of Almajiri and other out-of-school-children is worrisome and must be addressed by the Federal Government. Nwokeocha, who is also the Executive Director at the Africa Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities with the African […]

A lecturer at the Department of Sociology, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University (IBBUL) Lapai, Niger State, Prof. Steve Nwokeocha, has said the number of Almajiri and other out-of-school-children is worrisome and must be addressed by the Federal Government.

Nwokeocha, who is also the Executive Director at the Africa Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities with the African Union (AU), Addis Ababa, made the call on Sunday at the 2018 graduation and prize giving day of JC-Best Schools International, Abuja.

He said the official figure of about 10 million out-of-school-children is lower than the estimated figure of 12 million and that since the majority of those affected are in the north, northern governors and other leaders must act collectively.

He said the efforts of few states tackling the almajiri, were not working as it was easy for the children to migrate to other states, hence the need for collective efforts to mainstream them into the conventional education system of the country.

“The situation had adversely affected efforts to meet the sustainable development goals on inclusive education for all. Nigeria has the most worrisome in education system which are the out-of-school-children and they said about 10.5 million out of school children and I disagree with such number.

“There will be no less than 12 million out-of-school children and nine million are the almajiris, they constitute the largest number of the country’s out-of-school-children. To me that is the high point of what we are not doing very well on education, despite numerous achievements recorded in the sector,” Nwokeocha said.

He said that private and religious educational institutions are an intervention to the Nigerian education system.

He said, “I wonder what our educational system would have been without their intervention of the private and religious institutions. We have much more people looking for admission into the universities than what the public universities would not have admitted. The same thing goes to the primary and secondary schools, so private and religious institutions are doing wonderfully well in promoting our educational system in the nation.”

The Director, JC-Best Schools International, Abuja, Mr. Kingsley Onuorah, said the numbers of private schools are not even enough going by the growing population of the out-of-school-children in the country and that government must work sincerely with private education operators to stem the tide.