10 Million Children Out Of School – Minister

More than 10 million children of school age in the country are out of school, according to the Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyat Rufa’i.

Rufa’i said this while speaking on the achievements of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme,  yesterday in Abuja.

She said that street urchins (almajiris in the northern part of the country) constituted the greatest percentage of school-age children that were not enrolled in school.

“We have this big challenge of having this 10 million out of school, which we are also trying to address through other strategies, particularly the almajiris that are a larger percentage of the 10 million that are out of school,” the minister said.

However, she gave an assurance that the government was working hard to ensure that more children were enrolled in school through the UBE programme.

Rufa’i added that President Goodluck Jonathan had intervened to enable the states to access N32 billion which the Federal Government set apart as its counterpart funding for the UBE.

She said with the amount, more than 600,000 classrooms and other facilities needed to adequately accommodate children already in school and enroll those still outside.

“If we have that N32 billion to be invested in the sector of basic education, definitely, it will go a long way in terms of solving the problem of classrooms, teachers as well as teaching materials,” Rufa’i said.

She urged the states to contribute their share to the fund for the provision of needed manpower and facilities in the schools.

According to her, this will also help to put the large number of children that are out of school “in the right perspective of going to school.”

Rufa’i said that, in spite of its problems, the UBE programme was achieving the objective for which it was set up, adding that it was developing the basic education sector.