The Nigerian Government has inaugurated Special Marshals on out-of-school children, with a pilot scheme in the Federal Capital Territory Abuja mandated to return, 10,000 back to school by September, 2024.
Inaugurating the 31 Marshals in Abuja, Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children Education, Mohammed Idris, challenged the Marshals to ensure that the President Bola Tinubu’s target of getting 10 million out-of-school children back to school is achieved in the life of the administration.
Under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, berated himself and the government for their inability to reduce the number of out-of-school children by half, despite several initiatives with tax payers money and international development partners support.
In 2024, President Tinubu administration appears to be heading in the right direction as it has established the National Commission initiated by the Buhari Administration since 2022.
The Task before the Mohammed Idris led team is to get all children back to the classrooms. At the last count, government said 10 million children is the official figure while the 2022 report by UNESCO says children of school ages from 6 to 16 years of age who are out of school in Nigeria stands at 22 million.
Also, Nigeria’s Northern Region is reported to have the highest figures, despite efforts by some state governments.
There seems to be a lot of expectations from the newly inaugurated Special Marshals, who were selected largely from the education sector and immediate community leaders.
There is also a clarion call by the Nigerian Government that every educated and concerned Nigerian should be a marshal, to bring these children back to the classrooms.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
