Kaduna State has unveiled the findings of its 2025/2026 Annual School Census and Out-of-School Children Mapping Exercise, identifying 187,719 children outside the formal education system.
The state says the data will drive evidence-based planning and targeted interventions to improve access to quality education.
The report, presented at a stakeholders’ workshop in Kaduna, provides a comprehensive assessment of the state’s education sector, capturing school infrastructure, teacher availability, enrolment trends and the distribution of out-of-school children across all 23 local government areas.
The mapping exercise identified 187,719 out-of-school children after surveying more than 360,000 households.
Country Director of Save the Children International, Duncan Harvey, and UNICEF Chief of Field Office, Kaduna, Dr. Gerida Birukila, commended the Kaduna State Government for adopting evidence-based planning, noting that the data would strengthen ongoing efforts to return thousands of out-of-school children to the classroom through targeted interventions.
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Project Coordinator of the Reaching Out-of-School Children (ROOSC) Project, Ezra Angai, said the findings would guide teacher deployment, school construction, community mobilisation and other interventions aimed at ensuring that no child is left behind.
Kaduna State Deputy Governor, Dr. Hadiza Balarabe, said the findings would serve as a roadmap for education policies, budget planning and strategic investments.
The findings show that 64.6 per cent of the affected children are between the ages of 6 and 11 years, 56.7 per cent are boys, 43.3 per cent are girls, while 1.43 per cent are children living with disabilities.
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