FG moves to address out-of-school children menace in Nigeria

By Aliyu Inuwa Mansir On Feb 25, 2024

out-of-school ,children, menace, Nigeria,Almajiri, — FG moves to address out-of-school children menace in Nigeria

The Federal Government has pledged to reduce the number of Almajirai and out-of-school children in the country by ten million in four years.

This was revealed by the executive secretary of the National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children, Hon. Sha’abban Ibrahim Sharada, in an interview with BBC Hausa monitored by SOLACEBASE, in Kano.

Sharada said the commission plans to create twenty-five thousand centres for Almajirai and out-of-school kids in the country and each centre will have at least one hundred students.

“Each year we will enrol about two million and five hundred thousand Almajirai, that is to say in four years we will graduate ten million Almajirai and out-of-school children in the country.”

“That is why we created a program called Accelerated Basic Education Programme where we try to summarise all the subjects that students get from primary one to JSS 3 and teach these students in nine months or thereabouts, then we give them certificates of primary and junior secondary school.

SOLACEBASE reports that the objective of the commission is to formulate policy relating to Almajiri education and out-of-school children in Nigeria as well as provide funds for research and personnel development for the improvement of Almajiri education in the country, development of programmes on Almajiri education, construction of classrooms and other facilities relating to Almajiri education and out-of-school children.

The commission is responsible for establishing schools in the settlements predominantly populated by the Almajirai and out-of-school children; and co-operating with other participating ministries and agencies.

The commission is also expected to collate, analyse and publish information relating to Almajiri education and out-of-school children.