By Adesina Wahab 

While different figures are being given by various agencies and organisations as the number of out-of-school children, OSC, in the country, the government is not resting on its oars in tackling the menace. Whether the figure is just one child or millions, no child should be denied the right to education. 

While education is the best legacy to bequeath to the coming generation, the seriousness of the matter of OSC has compelled the current administration led by President Bola Tinubu to take steps at not only reducing the number of OSC, but ensuring that the Nigerian child gets the education that will make him a real global citizen that can compete anywhere with his peers.

The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, who has been in the saddle in the ministry for over a year, recently enumerated efforts being made to stem the OSC menace and prepare today’s youths for the challenges of tomorrow.

“Some people and agencies are giving different figures about the out-of-school children issue, but I believe the figures are not as high as they claim. We have started our own enumeration of those who are out of school. Already we have been to seven states and the figure we got was about 450,000 children. Though we have not got to the endemic states, our projection is that the figure may not even be more than 10 million.

“However, be that as it may, we are not going to leave any child behind. Already, we have an arrangement where we are partnering with private school owners to help absorb some of these children. The government will be paying their fees and even buy uniforms for them. 

“ We have also done the census of primary and secondary schools in the country and we have extracted the necessary statistics to guide our policy making process. Our public primary schools are 70,333 with 23, 627,232 pupils. However, we found out that the rate of transition from primary schools to junior secondary schools is poor. Out of the over 23 million pupils, only about 3, 758,201 go to JSS 1 class. 

“ The take is that the over 20 million not transiting to junior secondary schools mostly lack access. It is not a matter of lack of funds, but lack of access and I have met with the Nigerian Governors’ Forum for state governors to help build more schools. We need more schools. We are working to resuscitate the School Feeding Programme and that is an avenue to get more children to come to school. 

“We are also not forgetting the need to motivate teachers. We recently held a programme where outstanding teachers were rewarded and to also motivate others. In the same vein, I have personally written state governors on the need to employ more teachers for our public schools. Some of them are responding positively. The Enugu State Governor has responded and written that 2,000 new teachers would be recruited,” he said.

Alausa also mentioned the introduction of Learner Identification Number that each student would be given from primary school level and which would help to trace and track the student throughout his schooling years.

“We are integrating Almajiri and nomadic education into formal education structure. The girl child and vulnerable population. There is increased access and improved numeracy for the girl child. Our approach to vocational training is to collaborate with partners and the private sector to make things better, “ he stated.

On school safety issue, Alausa said the Federal Ministry of Education, in conjunction with the Nigerian Security and Civic Defence Corps is improving school safety through real time tracking system.

“The NSCDC’s newly-unveiled platform has 15,000 schools registered and has received  data on 141,000 geolocated schools from the FME’s platform. Additionally, the FME is establishing a School Safety Department to support the security framework and infrastructure of all schools in the country,” he stated. 

Through the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, the ministry has deployed over 1,000 smart boards to federal and state basic education schools nationwide to help equip teachers and students with future ready skills.