The Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, has said that Nigeria accounts for 12.4 per cent of the Out-of-School Children in sub-Saharan Africa.
Adamu disclosed this on Thursday in Benin during the 2023 Education Week with the theme ” Education for Alahgogaro: investing in quality education and access for our children and youth”.
He said: “Our education challenge is an open secret; out of 258 million Out-of-School Children worldwide, an estimated 62 million are in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“Nigeria is said to account for 12.4 per cent of the Out-of-School Children in sub-Saharan Africa.”
According to the Minister who was represented at the event by Mrs. Olatunji Davis, Director of Basic Education, Federal Ministry of Education, the 2018 National Personnel Audit estimated that 10.5 million children aged 5 to 14 were not in school.
He added that the figures have been further exacerbated by the increased learning poverty caused by the closure of schools and the non-return of children to school following the Global COVID-19 pandemic.
The Minister posited that to ensure access to quality basic education for the Nigerian child, the President’s June 12 declaration on the enforcement of free and compulsory basic education for the first nine years of schooling underscores Nigeria’s commitment to achieving Universal Basic Education (UBE) as enshrined in the UBE Act of 2004.
He listed the strategic programs to achieve the federal government’s commitment to include the Better Education Service Delivery (BESDA), Adolescent Girls’ Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE), IDEAS Program, and the Transforming Education Systems at State Level (TESS) and the various interventions of the federal ministry of education at the Federal and States and through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and other agencies of the Federal Ministry of Education.
“Education is one of the most important investments a country can make in its future. It is a powerful agent of change which improves health, livelihoods, contributes to social stability and drives long-term economic growth. The return on investment in education is very high, therefore, there must be no compromise on quality.”
He stressed that a major policy priority for the medium-term national development plan still remains to improve access to quality education in the country.
The Minister, however, commended the Edo state government for improving the education sector and charged other states to follow suit.
Earlier, the Edo State Commissioner of Education, Dr Joan Oviawe, said the education week was to showcase the progress made in EdoBEST in the last six years and also what to do moving forward in the learning of Edo children
She however commended the stakeholders for supporting the vision of Governor Godwin Obaseki’s vision for reenacting education in the state.
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