Nigeria accounts for 12.4% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s out-of-school children

The Federal Government says Nigeria accounts for 12.4 percent of out-of-school children in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Adamu Adamu, minister of education, stated this in Benin City at the ongoing Edo Education Week 2023, themed, “Education for Alaghodaro: Investing in quality education and access for our children and youth”.

Adamu, represented by Olatunji Davis, director of basic education at the federal ministry of education, 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 percent of the out-of-school children in Sub-Saharan Africa”.

Read also: Helping cerebral palsy children make best of learning

The minister, who explained that the 2018 national personnel audit estimated 10.5 million children aged between five and 14 were not in school, said the figure was being made worse by increased poverty occasioned by the closure of schools and non-return of children to schools following the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said to ensure access to quality basic education for the Nigerian child, the president’s democracy day declaration on the enforcement of free and compulsory basic education for the first nine years of schooling, was critical to Nigeria’s commitment to achieving Universal Basic Education (UBE) as enshrined in the UBE Act of 2004.

He commended the Edo State government for improving the education sector and urged other states to take a leaf.