Maryam Abeeb, Abuja
The Federal Governmnet has revealed that plans are on the way to secure a N45 billion grant from the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) to strengthen the Government’s fight against the out-of-school children.
The Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, who made this known said that the government has secured N220 billion loan from the World Bank to address the problem under the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) programme in 17 states.
The benefitting states include the 13 states from the Northwest, Northeast, Oyo, Ebonyi, Niger and Rivers.
He said this at the 2020 Commonwealth Day cerebration in Abuja on Monday. The 2018 National Personnel Audit for primary schools puts the population of Nigeria’s out-ofschool children at 10,193,918, with Kano, Akwa-Ibom, Katsina and Kaduna having the highest numbers.
Adamu said his ministry, in partnership with the states’ ministry of education was intensifying efforts to bring into the formal education, various categories of kids that are not in school.
He said: “There is also an ongoing process to secure a N45 billion grant from the Global Partnership for education, to strengthen our fight against the out-of-school children. “As part of our commitment to transforming the education sector in Nigeria, the federal ministry of education in partnership with the states’ ministry of education is intensifying various efforts to bring into the formal education, various categories of out-of-school children that have been hitherto left out of that critical service. “We believe that the future we are building would be of no significance, if we do not build the people who would occupy it.
The present educational programme for the Almajiris in the north is a typical case in our efforts and it is one part of that great labour to which we are unreservedly committed.”
He also said that his ministry would soon begin the implementation of the Adolescent Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE), a special project for girls that are out-of-school. The minister said the five year World Bank supported project is targeted at equipping out-ofschool girls aged 10-20 with vocational skills. The minister also said that more than 200 Nigerians had benefitted from the Commonwealth scholarship scheme since its inception.
