The Minister of State for Education, Mr. Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, has disclosed that about nine million of the 10.5 million out-of-school children in Nigeria are Almajiris in the North.
Wike said this while reacting to a report by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO.
UNESCO Education for All Global Monitoring Report, EAGMR, had released a report, which suggests that Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children, among 11 other countries.
The report listed other countries to include Pakistan (5.1 million), Ethiopia (2.4 million), India (2.3 million), Philippines (1.5 million), Cote d'Ivoire (1.2 million), Burkina Faso (1 million) and Niger (1 million). Others are Kenya (1 million), Yemen (0.9 million), Mali (0.8 million) and South Africa (0.7 million).
However, an online statement sent to National Mirror by the minister's Special Adviser (Media), Simeon Nwakaidu, said the 10.5 million figure was inherited by the present administration.
The statement added that the bulk of the number of out-of-school children was made up of Almajiri children from the North. Nonetheless, Wike disclosed that concerted efforts were being made by the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Education, to change the ugly trend.
Part of the measures aimed at correcting the anomaly, according to the minister, was the N1 billion made available to UNESCO by the Ministry of Education, to "facilitate mass literacy programmes to ensure that more Nigerian children are enrolled in Nigerian schools".
He added that other deliberate interventions geared towards mass literacy included the establishment of the "Almajiri Education Programme, the Girl-Child Education Programme, the out-of-school children programme for South-East and South- South and the mass literacy programme being executed in conjunction with UNESCO".
Wike said the President Goodluck Jonathan administration had already "delivered 85 out of the 124 Almajiri Schools being constructed in northern Nigeria and hopes to deliver 400 of such schools by 2015".
National Mirror
So does that mean education is not really encouraged in the North? That is very bad. It just has to stop.
Education needs to be taken seriously all around the world. There shouldn't be drop outs at all. Illiteracy is never a good thing.