The United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF has in a report released recently disclosed that more than 13 million children in Nigeria are out of school, adding that most of them are in Nigeria’s northern states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, where Boko Haram has been waging a campaign against Western education since 2009.
The UNICEF's survey indicated that the population of out of school children in Nigeria rose from 10.5 million to 13.2 million, the highest in the world. The Fund said most of these children are in northern states where Boko Haram insecurities have disrupted academic activities.
This is despite claim by the government that about 8.596 million pupils were currently being fed across 46,247 public primary schools in 24 states of the federation. It claimed to have spent N49 billion on feeding of pupils in public primary schools across 24 states of the country in the last two years and that the programme has achieved 30 percent improvement in school enrollment since its commencement.
Recall also that as part of efforts to wage war against education, the insurgent group in February, abducted 110 school girls from a school in Dapchi, Yobe State, but returned the girls one month later and warned their parents never to take their children back to school.
Education psychologist Mayowa Adegbile, in an interview with Voice of America ( VoA) disclosed that increasing numbers of out of school children in Nigeria adversely affected economic growth.
He said, “Sixty percent of that population are girls only, and you know when you bring it back home, every girl becomes a mother or a woman who would in turn take care of other children. And for a woman who goes to school it has a ripple effect, an economical ripple effect.
“When she goes to school, she has education, she gets a job, even if she doesn't have a job... even if it's just basic secondary school education, she can communicate basic English and mathematics,” Adegbile said.
Experts further claimed that besides impact of insurgents on education, cultural beliefs and practices also play significant role in the increasing numbers of out of school children.
They claimed that the country’s budgetary spending on education is not enough to quell the widening gap - only seven percent of Nigeria's $24 billion 2018 budget is earmarked for education.
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