Niger State Government in North Central Nigeria has enrolled over 72,000 out of school children in the 367 selected non-formal education centres across the State.
The Niger state Chairman of SUBEB, Dr. Isah Adamu who stated this during the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA), in Minna the state capital recently, revealed that the state has already targeted over 47,000 out of school children in its plans for education in the state.
“Over 1,000 Almajirai centres were also identified in 517 communities of the 15 focal local governments of the state with 206,093 out of school children were captured in which132,086 were males and 74,007 females,” said Dr. Isa.
The Nigerian Minister of State for Education, Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, who was in Niger State for the programme, commended the State’s efforts towards educational development.
The Minister mentioned that 17 out of the 36 states of the federation benefited from the federal government Better Education Service programme aimed at eradicating out of School Children from the streets.
The Minister, who also applauded President Muhammadu Buhari in ensuring that no Nigerian child will be deprived of quality education irrespective of their status, said that over 10 million out of school children in the country were targeted to benefit from the program.
He further urged Niger state who had already benefitted 6 million dollars in respect of the programme to ensure full implementation of the programme so as to improve its literacy rate.
Hajiya Hannatu Jibrin Salihu, The Niger State Commissioner of Education, who reiterated the commitment of the state government to improve the fortunes of almajirai and other street children across the state through the BESDA Program, assured of effective and efficient implementation of the program.
Report shows that about 10.5 Millions of Children in Nigeria aged 10-14 Years are out of School, Only 61 percent of 6-11-year-olds regularly attend primary schools.
Governors of states in Northern Nigeria have been making tremendous efforts in remodelling the almajirai system of education and eradicating girl child abuse with the aim of enrolling them for formal education.
Nnenna.O
