By: Danjuma Attah, Gombe
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says it has developed the National Framework of Action to reduce Out-of-School children in Nigeria in collaboration with the Universal Basic Education Commission.
It has therefore tasked the authorities in Adamawa, Bauchi and Gombe States to as a matter of urgency adopt and implement the framework of action which also has a specific model of retention, transition and completion of education by all children.
It also ensures inclusive and equitable quality education and promotes lifelong learning opportunities for all, says Dr. Tushar Rane, Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Bauchi Field Office.
He made the call in Gombe during an interview with journalists shortly before the end of a two day Regional Stakeholders Engagement meeting on Out-of-School Children and Retention, Transition and Completion Models. The stakeholders in the meeting were drawn from Adamawa, Bauchi and Gombe States.
The International body had lamented that a staggering 10.2 million primary school-age children and an additional 8.1 million at the junior secondary level are out of school in Nigeria.
This has unfortunately positioned Nigeria as having the largest number of Out-of-School children globally.
Dr Rane said, the framework and Retention, Transition and Completion Model will guide their respective States in confronting the Out-of-School children phenomenon.
The framework strengthens the community accountability, mobilization and uses innovations and technologies to increase access to quality learning and financing of Out-of-School children in the States.
He assured that UNICEF will play a critical role stressing, “we will not only show some of the good practices from across different States but also globally.
“We will try to provide the technical support, monitoring support, identify what needs to be corrected all in ensuring that every child matters and non of them is left behind”, he emphasized.
Dr. Tushar Rane also harped on the need for sustainability of the programme saying, “the success lies in ensuring the State does it on it’s own with little support”.
Also speaking in an interview earlier on the State of out of school children in the State and efforts of Government in stemming the tide, the Gombe State Commissioner for Education, Aishatu Maigari, described it as a menace which the current administration of Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya had been working to address since it came on board in 2019.
According to her, deliberate policies had been employed through collaborations with UNICEF and the World Bank which brought about programmes like BESDA.
She said, the ministry along with the State SUBEB had been working on Out-of-School children using all the strategies known to them to mop up Out-of-School children.
“In four years, we had mopped out 350,000 children only to be told that we have 750,00 children out of school. So, as we mopp them out, those coming into the sphere are so many, so we need to redouble our efforts into that.
“One of the issues we have seen is poverty. The State Government pays for their WAEC fees to motivate them finish the Senior Secondary schools.
“For the Junior Secondary School, we do the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) free for all public and private schools to motivate them. We hope with these and other policies that will come in, we will see a change in statistics”, she explained.
