The Universal Basic Education Commission has disclosed that Nigeria currently needs an additional 20,000 schools and 907,769 classrooms to be able to absorb the over 10.5 million out-of-school children in the country. Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Hammid Bobboyi, made this known while briefing the Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Mamman, SAN, on the activities of the Commission.
Director, Press and Public Relations of the Federal Ministry of Education, Ben Bem Goong, made this known in a statement available to newsmen on Tuesday in Abuja.
He quoted Bobboyi as noting that infrastructural gaps, and inadequate manpower as some of the challenges facing the Commission in its efforts towards ensuring equitable access to quality basic Education.
Earlier in his briefing, UBEC Executive Secretary, Bobboyi told the Ministers that the country needs additional 20, 000 schools and 907, 769 classrooms to absorb the growing number of out-of-school children.
The Minister of Education, Prof. Mamman, however, reaffirmed the commitment of the current administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to prioritize basic Education in the country.
He had earlier noted that President Tinubu had directed the return of the 10.5 million out-of-school children to school at the expiration of his tenure.
Mamman emphasized that the foundation level is the most critical segment in the education sub-sector which must be properly developed in order to impact positively on other tiers of the sector and overall national development.
While receiving briefings from the Executive Secretary UBEC, Dr. Bobboyi, the Minister used the occasion to call on all the States of the federation to show more outstanding commitment towards providing counterpart funding to accelerate the development of basic education in the country.
He added that the government of Tinubu would leave no stone unturned in ensuring that every Nigerian child is brought on board the ship of education.
He noted that the forthcoming National Census will pay paid to the controversies surrounding the actual figures of out-of-school children.
Speaking in the same vein, Minister of State for Education Dr. Yusuf Tanko Sununu said all hands must be on deck to ensure that Nigerian children get the desired education to prepare them for the future.
Sununu, accordingly directed the UBEC Chief Executive to take the struggle for counterpart funding to the doorstep of State Governors, explaining that an uneducated child is a clear danger to himself and society at large.
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission Dr Hammid Bobboyi revealed that the Commission with the support of other critical stakeholders, has developed a national Framework of Action designed to address the out-of-school children phenomenon in Nigeria.
Speaking at the regional stakeholders’ engagement on the National Framework of Action to tackle OOSC menace, Bobboyi urged the state governments and other stakeholders to be focused on the implementation of the National Framework of Action in order to address the challenge.
He noted that the alarming number of OOSC has given the country a negative reference to educational development strides and aspirations on the global scene.