In a determined effort to reduce the rate of out-of-school children in Bauchi State in particular and Nigeria as a whole, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has organised a sensitization meeting for stakeholders made up of traditional rulers, community leaders and others on the necessity of household mapping and enumeration of the out-of-school children across 8 local government areas of Bauchi State.
While addressing the meeting, the Chief of field office, UNICEF Nigeria Bauchi office, Mr Bhanu Pathak noted that the challenge of out-of-school children particularly in the North-East was becoming worrisome.
Bhanu Pathak who was represented by the Officer-in-Charge of the department, Amos Kudzala said that if the situation was not addressed immediately, the nation might suffer a high literacy level and numeracy rates and decreased future labour force.
The sensitization meeting which was held in collaboration with the Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board (BASUBEB) at the Command Guest House in Bauchi, according to Bhanu Pathak was aimed at identifying factors contributing to the increase in the number out-of-school children in the state.
He said that in addition to economic reason, cost of schooling, socio-cultural and religious considerations are the major factors for the decline in school enrollments, stressing that education plays a vital role in the development of any country and eradicate poverty as well as improving the excellence of one’s life.
The UNICEF Chief stated that, “It is no longer news that there are over 13 million out-of-school children in Nigeria, and of this number, about 60 per cent are in the North. This situation is not only unacceptable but calls for urgent action by all stakeholders”.
“To contribute to addressing the challenge of out-of-school children, UNICEF has the vision to collaborate with government institutions, traditional leaders, civil society organizations, faith-based organizations, communities and other development partners to find solutions that will result in getting the out-of-school children back to school”, he assured.
“To do that, we have to identify where those out-of-school children are —hence the household mapping and enumeration of out-of-school children exercise we have supported the government to embark on.” He further said
The UNICEF boss also stated that inadequate teachers, learning facilities and far distance to the nearest school, classrooms and toilet must be addressed to return children to the classroom, adding that Bauchi State has 1,080,150 out-of-school children, which is the second-highest after Kano State which has 1,496,736.
In his Goodwill Message, a representative of Northern Education Initiative (NEI +), in Bauchi State, Mustapha Ahmed said that NEI is currently working in 10 local government areas of the state on household mapping, adding that they have successfully mapped out 20 households in 422,000 communities.
The stakeholders assured UNICEF of their readiness to cooperate in the House Mapping exercise because according to them the end result is beneficial to the communities.