In response to the pressing issue of out-of-school children in Nigeria, the Senate has called upon the Federal Ministry of Education, its associated agencies, and relevant stakeholders to collaborate on devising new strategies to address this challenge effectively. The Senate’s resolution came following the adoption of a motion titled “Compelling need to tackle the challenge of out-of-school children in Nigeria” during Wednesday’s plenary session.

The motion, sponsored by Senator Oluranti Adebule of the All Progressives Congress (APC) representing Lagos State, highlighted the alarming statistics revealed in the 2022 report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). According to the report, approximately 20 million Nigerian children are currently out of school.

Senator Adebule underscored the urgency of the situation, emphasizing the need for concerted efforts to tackle this growing concern. The Senate’s call for collaborative action underscores the gravity of the issue and the necessity for swift and effective measures to ensure access to education for all children in Nigeria.

This, she said, represented 10 percent of the estimated Nigerian population of 200 million people and also represents the highest number of out-of-school children from any country globally.

She, however, noted that the ministry of education had since disputed the figure.

“It is a general belief that whatever the real figures on out-of-school children are, has become a challenge on the Nigerian state that must be dealt with as a matter of urgency.”

She said the social impacts of having about 20 million out-of-school children on the Nigerian state was an impediment to achieving some of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

According to her, it is resulting in a lack of inclusiveness and equitable quality of education and promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all.

“The issue will provide for easy recruitment into criminal gangs, banditry and terrorism which are the biggest security issues the Nigerian state has been dealing with for many years.”

She said, in the past, successive administrations made several efforts to deal with out-of-school children menace, saying that the last effort was deployment of home-grown school feeding programmes by the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

She, however, said the programme had little impact on the surging number of out-of-school children.

According to her, there is a need to evolve new thinking and more aggressive strategies to deal with the menace.

She expressed belief that when all the institutions concerned are committed to their responsibilities, the menace of out-of-school children will be subdued, saying that the situation is a concern to the Federal Government.

Similarly, Sen. Mohammed Monguno (APC- Borno) said the motion was important, adding that all efforts should be made to ensure that the children are enrolled in schools to avoid the challenge of recruiting them into banditry and terrorism.

Sen. Ahmed Lawan (APC- Yobe) said the issue of out-of-school children was a social and security issue as well as a major challenge to the development of Nigeria.

According to him, the number of out-of-school children could be within the region of 40 million.

He said that efforts must be deliberately made to get the children back to school and prepare them for leadership, noting that global development may be eluding Nigeria with issues of out-of-school children.

Also, Sen. Adams Oshiomhole (APC- Edo) said every Nigerian child needs to be enrolled in school, given the importance of education to eradication of poverty.

He urged the appropriate agencies of government to publish the actual statistics of out-of school-children and steps taken by state governments to address the issues.

President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, in his remarks commended the sponsor for the motion, saying that opportunities would have been given to many Nigerian children, if attention was paid by various governments both state and local governments in the past.

The Senate in its further resolution mandated its Committee on Education (Basic and Secondary) to engage the Federal Ministry of Education and pay attention to the issue of out-of-school children with the ultimate objective of drastically reducing the number.

It called for measures to rekindle the national consciousness through sensitisation and advocacy on the importance of education to the growth and development of Nigeria and the benefits of having a majority educated population.

The Senate has issued a call for urgent action towards the diligent implementation of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Act, advocating for a two-year time limit for its execution. This directive was part of a series of resolutions made by the Senate to address the critical issue of out-of-school children in Nigeria.

Furthermore, the Senate urged governments at all levels to initiate targeted intervention programs aimed at tackling the various barriers hindering free access to quality basic education, with a particular focus on addressing multidimensional poverty and insecurity.

In addition to these measures, the Senate called upon the Judiciary across the 36 states of the federation to take proactive steps in establishing mobile courts dedicated to enforcing the provisions of the UBE Act.

These resolutions reflect the Senate’s commitment to addressing the challenges facing the education sector in Nigeria and ensuring that all children have access to quality basic education, irrespective of socio-economic factors or security concerns.