FG Declares That Out Of School Children Has Dropped To 10.3 Million

The Federal Government of Nigeria has stated that the number of out-of-school children in the country has now reduced to 10.3 million from 12 million.

The FG said several interventions by stakeholders in the education sector had further helped the drop in the statistics of out-of-school children.

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, announced this at the zonal dissemination workshop of Nigeria Education Sector Analysis report which took place in Abeokuta, Ogun state.

Represented by Director, Educational Planning, Research and Development in the ministry, Dr Folake David, Echono further said Nigeria still had problems of easy access to education.

She said numbers showed that not all children of  school age were in school in major parts of the country.

According to her; “We still have issues of access. Not all children are in school even in the southwest. Some have dropped out. We have gender inequality issue as we still have more boys in schools than girls.

“In some areas, we have girls more than boys. Even when they are all in school, we have the problem of learning outcome.

“There are different challenges, so, each state has to address its own issue. And nationally, we address national issues because on a poll, the whole country will be rated not just only on the basis of one state, but on national averages.

“As at the time of the study, it is 12 million, but, from the personnel audit conducted and as at last year, it became 10.3 million which is what we have adopted as a government.

“As at the time the study was concluded, it has reduced to 10.3 million. But, while the study was on, we have 12 million. These figures are not static and a lot  of things have affected the numbers.

“We had a lot of interventions  in those states, the number has  reduced drastically. We have some figures, but, we are doing the plus and minus. As a result of COVID-19, some other children have attained school age, they have added to the number.

“We are trying to ensure that we look at the issues we have and plan properly in tackling then.

“We are also putting up policy to ensure that we have digitalized learning”.

Earlier in his statement, the state Commissioner for Education, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu said the state had put in place effective measures to better the standard of education in the state.

Arigbabu also said the state had started the rehabilitation of 960 primary and secondary schools.