The National Commission for Nomadic Education (NCNE) has linked the increase in the figure of out-of-school-children from 10.5 million in 2021 to 18.5 million in 2022 to the banditry, kidnapping, insurgency and early marriage in the Northwest.
The Commission’s Executive Secretary, Prof. Bashir Usman, who stated this in Kaduna yesterday also, said that the alarming rate of the out-of-school-children may worsen the security situation in the region and the country at large if not checked.
At a capacity-building training for members of school-based management committees (SBMCs) and mothers’ association (MA) from Northwestern states on combating the menace, Prof. Usman noted that 3.5 million of the 18.5 million children are from the nomadic background.
Represented at the event by the Commission’s Director of Quality Assurance, Mr Akin Akinyosoye, he said the issue of out-of-school-children has been one of the major challenges in the implementation of nomadic education programmes.
He said: “In 2022, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that Nigeria has 18.5 million children that are out of school. This figure is quite high when compared with last year’s estimates that were put at 10.5 million which puts Nigeria’s out-of-school-children at an emergency frequency.
“The UNICEF posits that 60 per cent of the 18.5 million in Nigeria are girls.
“This could be worse in the Northwest, comprising Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina, Sokoto, Zamfara and Kebbi states which were adversely affected by kidnapping, banditry, insurgency, and early marriage; hence the increased number of out-of-school-children in the zone. The prevalence of out-of-school children could exacerbate the worsening security situation in the zone.
“Similarly, it has been estimated that out of the 18.5 million figures, 3.5 million children are from the nomadic background.
“However, the issue of out-of-school-children has been one of the major challenges in the implementation of the Nomadic Education Programme (NEP) in Nigeria. The Commission has adopted various strategies to ensure that this population of nomadic children return to school. Part of these efforts is to build the capacity of members of school-based management committees and mothers’ associations to serve as foot soldiers in boosting the effort of the commission toward reducing the number in their communities.