Education

Out-of-school children: UBEC tasks stakeholders on implementation of framework to tackle menace

Executive Secretary of Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr Hammid Bobboyi has urged the state governments and other critical stakeholders to be focused on the implementation of the national Framework of Action designed to address the out-of-school children phenomenon in Nigeria.

Bobboyi made the call in Abuja at the regional stakeholders’ engagement on the National Framework of Action to tackle OOSC menace, which he noted has given the country a negative reference on educational development strides and aspirations in the global scene.

The stakeholders’ sensitisation meeting was earlier held in some other regional centres as follows: Kano centre was held from 12th 15 July 2023; Lagos centre 26th to 29 July and Port Harcourt centre, 3rd to 5th August.

The Executive Secretary expressed the commitment of the federal government towards providing inclusive education practices where no one is excluded or denied the opportunity to access education.

He noted that the meeting organised by UBEC in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) was part of the collective effort towards ensuring timely commencement of the implementation of OOSC intervention activities across the states and also ensuring that states take full ownership of the implementation processes.

He recalled that the meeting that led to the finalization of “this very important national document was held in April 2023 as basic education stakeholders unanimously adopted the National Framework of Action for addressing the Out-of-School Children (OOSC) phenomenon in Nigeria for implementation, especially at the State and grassroots level”.

He added that one of the resolutions at the adoption meeting was that UBEC in partnership with UNICEF, should conduct regional engagements where states would have the opportunity to share the key features of their out-of-school interventions to make room for better consultations with a broad range of stakeholders drawn from the State Ministry of Education, State Agency for Mass Education, Civil Society Organizations and other participants from States Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs), UBEC and UNICEF.

“I wish to stress the fact that this regional stakeholders’ engagement is being organized by UBEC and UNICEF with the view to rekindling our consciousness of the importance of inclusive education practice where no one is excluded or denied the opportunity to access education, which we all acknowledge as the bedrock of all forms of social, technological, economic and political development required by everyone for a better life.

“To this end, this engagement demonstrates the organizers’ commitment to playing very vital roles in sensitizing and advocating for collective efforts in addressing the very unacceptable phenomenon of out-of-school children in our society.

“We are all aware that the high number of OOSC in Nigeria has continued to hinder our educational growth and has also given a negative reference on our nation’s educational development strides and aspirations in the global scene.

“Despite our conviction that government at all levels are making reasonable provision for basic education sector annually, there are still unacceptable number of children in this category.

“In this regard, UBEC is collaborating with relevant partners particularly, the UNICEF to achieve its mandate by doubling its efforts to create public awareness on the danger of having large numbers of children out of school and also providing platform, structure and interventions through which the stakeholders at the State and grassroots levels will leverage on in tackling the challenge in their respective domain,” he said.

He charged stakeholders to go back to the drawing board and proffer solutions that would ensure drastic reduction of the number of children that are out of school, or eradicate the phenomenon completely.

Bobboyi said the Commission’s insistence on addressing the challenge through broad-based partnership prompted UBEC and UNICEF to request the participation of State Ministries of Education (SMoE), State Agency for Mass Education (SAME) and other critical stakeholders apart from SUBEBs in making implementable inputs to the Framework and also being physically present at this regional engagement.

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