750,000 Out-of-School Children to Return to Classrooms in Kebbi

In the face of upsurge in the population of out-of-school children in Africa and in Nigeria in particular, the Kebbi State Government is set to ensure return of 750,000 pupils back to classrooms.
Chairman, Kebbi State Universal Basic Education Board, Prof. Suleiman Khalid, who said that the board had stepped-up efforts announced the plan of the board when a delegation on Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) Implementation Support Team from Abuja paid a courtesy visit on Gov. Atiku Bagudu in Government House, Birnin Kebbi on Wednesday.
This is coming weeks after the United Nation’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation announced that the population of out-of-school children had exploded to over 20m in Nigeria.
The chairman said 86,000 out-of-school children were returned to school in 2021 across the state, adding that in 2022, it was planned that 750,000 of such children would be returned to school.
“These, among others, are some of the incredible achievements we have recorded sequel to the sustained support of Gov. Abubakar Atiku Bagudu,” he said.
Receiving the delegation, Gov. Bagudu restated his commitment to adequately fund education at all levels in the state, while appreciating the successes recorded in returning out-of-school children to classes in the state under the project.
While assuring of the readiness of his administration to logically and judiciously deploy resources to achieve better results, Bagudu observed that the myriad of interventions by the federal and Kebbi state governments had positively opened the fortunes of education in the state.
“These interventions had really helped to arrest the hitherto high level of decay in the educational institutions in the state. Let me acknowledge that BESDA had also enabled the state to do what it should have done earlier, this is a wake up call.
“I am delighted that SUBEB in the state has been doing very well, I want to assure that more will be done.
“Kebbi is successfully implementing many intervention projects with the Federal Government, World Bank and other agencies.
“Education planning depends on statistics, I want to direct those in charge to be mindful of the sanctity of data,” Bagudu directed.
The Team Leader, Dr Bala Zakari who is also the Deputy Executive Secretary, Technical, UBEC Abuja, said BESDA was a result-oriented project under the Federal Ministry of Education expected to end next month.
He explained that it was a four-year programme that had received tremendous support from Kebbi State Government.
Zakari also lauded the state for the support and cooperation it gave during the just concluded National Personnel Audit, adding that BESDA was targeting out-of-school children, to get them back to school.
The National Implementation Adviser, BESDA, Dr. Dabo Adamu, stated that Kebbi remained one of the best BESDA states in the country, assuring that it was why the state government earned $5 miliion after the first NBS verification.
“The state will earn more during the forthcoming second leg of the exercise. I, therefore, want to request His Excellency to improve financial support to Kebbi SUBEB to achieve optimum result,” he advised.
NPO Reports that a combination of pervasive insecurity especially in the Northern part of Nigeria and South-East, acute hunger, unemployment and others have forced an increase in the population of children forced to be out of school.