The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, has expressed deep regrets over the surveys by both UNICEF and UBEC, which ranked Nigeria as number one in the world as the country with the highest number of out-of-school children.
Represented by the Minister of State, in the ministry Emeka Nwajuiba, at the 65th National Council on Education meeting in Jalingo, Taraba State, Adamu Adamu, said that more frightening too, is the fact that 1-out-of-5 out-of-school children in the world are Nigerian; thus pegging the figure at about 10.1 million.
The minister added that coincidentally, the recent occurrences in the country’s education system such as kidnapping, adoption of students, increased activities of insurgence, and general insecurities in schools, have added to the long list of factors, responsible for the growing number of out-of-school children, apart from the fundamental factors of cultural, political, religious beliefs and poverty.
Also Read: Borno Education: Zulum enrolls 5,361 orphans in schools in Monguno
He also described as regrettable, the inability of some states of the federation in accessing the counterpart funds from the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, for developing Basic education in their States, noting that over One hundred and thirty billion Naira has remained unutilized, due to the inability of the states, to provide their 50 percent counterpart funds, before accessing it.
The minister stressed that the affected states, therefore, need to reprioritize basic education, as it is the bedrock for further and continuing education, too strategic to be ignored.
Edited: Tunde Orebiyi
