Niger State gets $6m to tackle out- of-school children

The federal government on Wednesday said the sum of $6 million have been released to the Niger State government under the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) programme, to reduce the number of Out- of-School children in the state.

The Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, who made this known while flagging off the BESDA programme in Niger state, revealed that the state is one of the worst states in the ranking of Out- of -School children.

According to a statement signed by Ben Bem Goong, Director, Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Education, the Minister urged the state government to make judicious use of the $6 million released to it by BESDA in reducing the number of out-school children to tolerable levels.

He added that results achieved in the first phase will determine if more intervention funds will be released to the state.

Nwajiuba also stated that the performance requirement is not limited to Niger State but the other 16 states involved in the BESDA programme.

He however commended the state government on efforts being made to increase enrolment as it has successfully brought on board over 90,000 children from the estimated 292,700 Out -of -School children in that state.

The Minister, while noting that Nigeria has the highest number of Out -of- School children in Sub-Saharan Africa, said the launch was in line with the Federal government’s determination to increase as well as improve access to qualitative basic education for Nigerian children, irrespective of their economic status.

Nwajuiba emphasized that government is doing all it can to rectify the situation.

While admitting that the issue of Out -of -School children is not the only problem bedevilling the education sector, the Minister stated that government is doing all it can to tackle the issues of infrastructural decay and deficits, poor funding, inadequate and qualified teachers, among others.

In his remarks, Governor of Niger State, Abubakar Sani Bello revealed that the state has made some progress in improving the educational standard in the state.

Bello revealed that improvement has been achieved in the areas of Almajiri education, the Girl-child education, teacher professional development, rehabilitation of educational infrastructure, among others.

He averred that there is still room for improvement, especially in the area of the girl child education.

The Governor subsequently clamoured for more support in building more schools and other educational facilities to help the state improve on its standard of education.

Also speaking, BESDA Coordinator, Amina Buba Haruna revealed that BESDA, in collaboration with the National Population Commission have concluded the 2019/2020 Nigeria Education Data survey (NEDS) in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory .

Haruna revealed that the data generated would be used to reward states in the next round of release of funds.

The Programme Coordinator therefore encouraged Niger state to continue addressing the challenges of the Out -of -School children and ensure that results are achieved in order to gain more funding.

Niger state is the 10th state out of the 17 participating states where the BESDA programme has been launched.