Preamble

The problem of out of school children in Nigeria has continued to challenge the modest efforts of governments both at the state and the federal level. These two, in concert with international development partners and other non-governmental organizations have been putting enormous effort and resources to combat the increasing menace of out of school children without satisfactory results. Despite this efforts, our cities and towns still remain littered with the depressing sight of out of school children engaged in alms-begging, hawking and sundry other disturbing activities which exposes them and the society to danger and increased security threats.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) disclosed that the total number of out of school children in the country is more than 20 million, taking its data from children aged six to 18 years, who are in primary one and senior secondary school three. This slightly differs from UBEC’s figure which ranges the children from age six to eleven and capping its figure at more than 10 million. This differences in figure notwithstanding, Nigeria is said to have the largest number of out of school children in the world. In its 2022 report, UNESCO noted that 20 million children in Nigeria out of its 200 million population are not enrolled in school. This figure amounts to 20 percent of the country’s population, a demography that is more than the overall population of various countries in Africa. The report further disclosed that there are 244 million children and youth within the ages of six and eighteen worldwide who roam the streets as a result of their non-enrolment into schools. While Central and Southern Asia have 85 million out of school children, Nigeria alongside India and Pakistan top the list of countries with the most children and youth excluded from education.

However, the UNESCO report as regard Nigeria’s 20 million figure of out of school children was disputed by the Federal Ministry of Education in a response entitled “UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report 2022 and the Phenomenon of Out-of-School Children in Nigeria.” In the response, the ministry argued that though UIS has attempted to justify the methods used in arriving at the 20 million figure, the fact remains that this report is capable of misinforming the public, misrepresenting the actual situation of the out-of-school children in Nigeria and underrating the significant efforts made by the government in addressing OOSC challenge. The response further stated that though it is the responsibility of states and local governments to provide primary and junior secondary education in Nigeria, the federal government has been working closely in partnership with them to develop the sub-sector by providing financial and technical assistance to states and local governments through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) which covers primary and junior secondary.

The report showed that the 2018 Nigerian Publishers Association (NPA) study established the number of OOSC, age six-11 (Primary School-going age) at 10.193, 918, regionally distributed as follows: North Central: 1,329,111, North West: 3,490, 671, South East: 713,176, South South:1, 208,183, South West: 1,451,740. Similarly, the figure of 6,192,081 was established for age 12-14 for Junior Secondary School going age. On this NPA report which UNESCO based its conclusion of 20 million out of school children, the Federal Ministry of Education argued that the 2018 NPA report took cognizance of Nigeria’s designated age bracket for universal basic education (Primary and Junior Secondary, age six-14) and did not extend to the senior secondary cadre (age 15-17) and the post-secondary school age of 18, which are both part of the UNESCO’s 20 million figure. As a rider to the differences in the actual figure of OOSC between UNESCO and the Federal Ministry of Education, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) in May 2023 noted that the estimated figure for the number of out of school children in Nigeria is no longer relevant and that availability of correct data is dependent on the conduct of a nationwide census.

In the midst of this disputations, conservative estimate still consider Nigeria accounting for 12.4 percent of the estimated 62 million OSSC in Sub-Saharan Africa, which is roughly over 8 million out of school population. The figure is still a matter of grave concern and should alarm critical stakeholders both governmental and nongovernmental to further double up their efforts in reducing this figure to the barest minimum. And in the northern part of the country where the OSSC menace live side by side with the itinerant alms-begging Almajiri children, the problem calls for a concerted collaborative effort of the states to contain.