Nigeria”s out of school children drops to 8.6% – Minister
The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, on Friday said out of school children in the country has dropped from 10.5 per cent to 8.6 per cent in the last three years. Adamu, represented by the Registrar, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, Prof. Ajiboye Josiah, said this on Friday in Bauchi at the flag-off of […]
The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, on Friday said out of school children in the country has dropped from 10.5 per cent to 8.6 per cent in the last three years.
Adamu, represented by the Registrar, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, Prof. Ajiboye Josiah, said this on Friday in Bauchi at the flag-off of 2017/2018 National Enrolment Drive.
The event took place at the Tudun Salmanu Primary School, Bauchi.
“When the present President came into power in 2015 UNICEF was telling us that the out of school children in Nigeria was about 10.5 per cent, but I want to tell Nigerians that with the effort of this president especially with school feeding programme, it has dropped from 10.5 million to 8.6 million as at last year.
“The government has put so many programmes in place to encourage our children to have access to schools and I want to commend President Muhammadu Buhari for that,” he said.
Adamu pointed out that the ministry had made it a policy to construct and furnish 7,875 classrooms annually for the next four years, commencing from 2015 to accommodate and enrol 2,725,000 pupils as well as recruit additional qualified teachers to carter for the increase in pupils enrolment.
He stressed that the ministry had earlier introduced the integration of Tsangaya (Qur’anic schools) into modern education system and the introduction of Enrolment Drive Policy to reduce the number of street children through the provision of quality learning.
Adamu further said that the ministry had signed an MoU with NYSC to enlist children in hard-to-reach areas in the country into the community development services to support community participation to further reduce number of out of school children.
He, therefore, urged the Bauchi State Government to take care of the welfare of their teachers and to recruit more teachers that would educate the children.
The minister pointed out that “the more we allow children to roam the streets, we risk our future, we risk our peace and the peace of our children”.
Besides, Adamu urged political leaders to flag-off similar enrolment campaign in their areas of jurisdictions.
Flagging-off the campaign, Gov. Mohammed Abubakar noted that the educational infrastructure in the state have been overstretched following influx of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) into the state.