NIGERIA. Niger State. Sokoto State: The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has allocated N22.79 billion to support the enrollment of out-of-school children in each of the 15 states in Nigeria.
The beneficiary states were chosen for the gesture based on the number of out-of-school children in each state through the Better Education Service Delivery for All (WBBESD) initiative, which is supported by the World Bank.
Transcontinental Times, found that as of November 2021, Nigeria had 10,193,918 out-of-school children overall and 924,590 were enrolled in basic schools in various states.
State recipients of N1.2 billion included Niger, Ebonyi, Kebbi, Gombe, Adamawa, Jigawa, Yobe, Rivers, Bauchi, Oyo, and Zamfara. As Sokoto, Katsina, and Kano states each have N2.4 billion, Taraba state alone would receive N2.05 billion.
Additionally, it was disclosed that the Commission had, as of the previous week, distributed N533.7 billion to the 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), between 2005 and 2021.
The Federal Government’s UBEC organisation is in charge of overseeing basic education in Nigeria and allocating intervention funding for basic education-related projects.
Nigeria has the highest rate of out-of-school children in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).
35 percent of Nigerian primary school students are thought to not continue to secondary education. In 2021, only half of all Nigerian children attended secondary education.
“We must examine what is happening to our children in Nigeria and the opportunities they are missing out on because of their lack of education,” UNESCO said.
“As we observe the International Day of Education today amid concerns about the impact of COVID-19 on education in many parts of the world.”
With 989,234, Kano State had the most, followed by Akwa-Ibom (581,800), Katsina (536,122), Kaduna (524,670), Taraba (499,923), Sokoto (436,570), Yobe (427,230), Zamfara (422,214), and Bauchi (354,373).
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