Kebbi, Bauchi, Zamfara top tally of 20 million Nigerian out-of-school children

Most of the bandits and terrorist-ravaged states in the northern part of the country made the top lists of out-of-school children in Nigeria which has now reached 20 million.

According to a report quoted by a research firm, SB Morgan, Kebbi State has 62% for male and 67% for female out-of-school children, Bauchi has 60% for males, and 61% female, while Zamfara followed the list, with 57.4% for males, and 66% for females.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) reported that Nigeria now has about 20 million out-of-school children, according to the latest global data on out-of-school children.

UNESCO said a new and improved methodology was used to arrive at the latest figures, saying there are “244 million children and youth between the ages of 6 and 18 worldwide (who) are still out of school.”

According to the statistics, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan have the highest figures for out-of-school children globally.

The figures in Nigeria have oscillated between 10.5 million and around 15 million for more than a decade, with the situation growing worse due to the degenerating security situation in the country.

Meanwhile, official data from Nigeria’s Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) showed that 32 states have not accessed over N48 billion in UBEC funds available for improving basic education across all states.

The Universal Basic Education Programme is aimed at ensuring free education for children at the primary school level and three years of junior secondary school. The programme was launched in September 1999 while the law establishing UBEC was signed in 2004.

The reason for the failure to access funds that are crucial to the educational outcomes of the states is partly because of the way the UBEC funds are structured. To access allocated UBEC funds, states must match the grant amount available up to at least 50%.

Section 11, subsection 2 of the law states that “For any State to qualify for the Federal government block grant pursuant to sub-section 1(1) of this section, such State shall contribute not less than 50% of the total cost of projects as its commitment in the execution of the project”.

However, according to recent information uploaded on the UBEC website, Anambra, Ogun, and Imo states have the highest amount of funds not accessed with over a N3billion grants for each.