By Halimah Olamide
The House of Representatives on Sunday disclosed that it has set up a machinery that will work out modalities that will ensure that over 14 million out-of-school Nigerian children are sent back to schools.
The Green Chamber said this is in form of an intervention through the House Committee on Alternative Education, chaired by Rep. Almustapha Ibrahim Aliyu (APC, Sokoto). It said that the move will also see the out-of-school children trained with relevant skills to become productive members of the society. “The intervention by the Green Chamber, under the leadership of the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, Ph.D, targets addressing public education by tackling poverty and value gaps.
“In partnership with relevant government agencies, the intervention aims at improving access to education for all Nigerian children in line with the aspirations of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs-4) on qualitative and inclusive education for all.
“The project is tagged ‘Nigeria Mass Reduction of Out-of-School children and Youth Project’ (NiMPROP), and it is proposed to last for a period of four years.”
The statement by the lower chamber also said that the move would significantly reduce the number of of out-of-school children through non-formal accelerated education system and other alternative schooling programmes, according to Rep Almustapha Aliyu include the National Commission of Almajiri and out-of-school children, the National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education and the National Commision for Nomadic Education.