The federal government has enrolled over two million out-of-school children in basic and Arabic literacy programmes within six months.
The minister of education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, stated this at the quarterly citizens and stakeholders’ engagement on Nigerian education sector ministerial deliverables in Abuja, yesterday.
Mamman said the topmost priorities of the ministry remain to build a reliable and authentic database for the sector, promote skills development and acquisition and reduce by a great percentage, the number of out-of-school children.
To achieve this, he said the ministry has developed a strategic plan captioned, “Nigerian Education Sector Roadmap (2024-2027).”
“To deliver on the mandate of the president, there is need to engage with stakeholders to provide opportunities to critically examine the progress in the implementation of 23 Ministerial Deliverables.
“It is one of the major focus of this administration to reduce the numbers of out-of-school children. While the commission set up to reduce this number, the problem of out-of-school is still ongoing.
“What we reported is the outcome from other agencies of the ministry that are doing their own part to ensure the problem is addressed,” he said.
On the recent kidnap of some students of the University of Calabar (UNICAL), he said the ministry is working with security agencies to bring back the students and getting TETFund to help fence the university.
On his part, the minister of state for education, Dr Yusuf Sununu said the ministry deployed technology in education to promote learning as well as skills development and acquisition at all levels.
Sununu said this would address teachers and the learning crisis at the basic education level.
“We quite believe that there is a need for a strong team approach in addressing the numerous challenges confronting our education sector.
“Education being a tool for individual, community, country and global development cannot be treated in isolation.
“It was in realisation of this that the International Labor Organisation classified education as an exportable commodity. By extension therefore, the need for both local and international collaboration becomes a necessity,” he said.
Also, the Lagos State Commissioner for Education, Jamiu Alli-Balogun expressed worry over the increase in WAEC fees to N27,000, noting that most parents could not afford to pay such.
He appealed to the federal government to come up with a policy on how the fees could be subsidised to give Nigerian children quality and affordable education.
