FG faults UNESCO’s report, says only 2.8m out of school
[files] Supporters of the “Coalition of Northern Groups” (CNG) rally to urge authorities to rescue hundreds of abducted schoolboys, in northwestern state of Katsina, Nigeria on December 17, 2020 – Boko Haram recruited three local gangs in northwest Nigeria to kidnap hundreds of schoolboys on its behalf, security and local sources said on December 16, 2020. The attack occurred hundreds of kilometres from Boko Haram’s stronghold in northeast Nigeria, where it launched a brutal insurgency a decade ago. (Photo by Kola SULAIMON / AFP)
The Federal Government, yesterday, debunked the report released by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), saying Nigeria has one of the highest figures for out-of-school children globally. UNESCO had in a report last month, revealed that Nigeria, with the challenge of insecurity and kidnapping of school children, has 20 million out-of-school children.
But Director, Senior Secondary Education, Federal Ministry of Education, Hajia Binta Abdulkadir, faulted this claim, yesterday, during an annual summit of the Education Writers Association of Nigeria (EWAN), saying efforts put in place by the government, such as the Basic Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA), among others, have contributed to the drastic reduction of the alleged 20 million figure.
Quoting the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, Abdulkadir disclosed that only 2.8 million school learners are out-of-school.
“The security situation in the country has had a domino effect on the literacy level of Nigerians as insurgency also destroyed 497 classrooms and left 2.8 million school learners in need of education-in-emergency support.”
Representative of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Tokunbo Wahab, who is the Special Adviser on Education, sought collaborative efforts in addressing the challenges making children drop out of school.
Chairman of EWAN, Mojeed Alabi, said the theme, ‘Towards Safe Schools in Nigeria’, was chosen to draw attention to the importance of safety of stakeholders in schools.
MEANWHILE, over 100 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram terrorists eight years ago in the Northeast have been neglected by the government, Kibaku Area Development Association (KADA), also known as Chibok Community, has said.
The community said the release of the remaining Abuja-Kaduna train attack victims last week showed that government has abandoned them, including their children that were abducted in school.
Dozens of terrorists had stormed the Chibok girls’ boarding school in 2014 and packed 276 pupils, aged 12 to 17 at the time, into trucks. They said since the mass abduction of their daughters in April 2014, wherein 57 escaped (on their own), they still have 110 of them unaccounted for.
National President of KADA, Dauda Ndirpaya Iliya, said the matter of the Chibok girls and the unending attacks on their communities still persist.
“The latest attack in Chibok happened on October 3, 2022, in Njlang, a village just 5km away from Chibok,” Iliya said.
The group called on President Muhammadu Buhari to rescue Chibok community, an ethnic nationality, from total annihilation by Boko Haram terrorists.
