Rauf Oyewole, Bauchi
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has said that the education system in Nigeria faces challenges in retention, transition and completion by students –particularly in the North East and North West regions of the country.
Speaking during a two-day regional stakeholders meeting on out-of-school children and retention, transition and completion models in Bauchi, Gombe and Adamawa states, UNICEF's Bauchi Chief of Field Office, Tushar Rane, said that the situation has become worse compared with 10 years ago.
Tushar said that the stakeholders engagement meeting was to bring out a collective commitment to creating and implementing models for the reduction of the number of out-of-school children and increasing the retention, transition, and completion of adolescent girls and boys in secondary education.
According to him, a staggering 10.2 million primary school-age children and an additional 8.1 million at the junior secondary level are out of school in Nigeria. “Unfortunately, this positions Nigeria with the challenge of having the largest number of out-of-school children globally.
“Only 63 percent of primary school age children regularly attend school. According to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2021, only 84 percent of children effectively transition to junior secondary education after primary school completion. Less than 50 percent – about 2.4 million – of the 5.9 million children who commence Primary Grade 1 annually in Nigeria persist to the conclusion of Junior Secondary Grade 3,” he said.
Also speaking, a director from Gombe State Universal Basic Education Board, Yawoji Ahmed Bala, said that some of the factors increasing the out-of-school children are; early marriage, peer group, social norms and beliefs.
The meeting was attended by commissioners of education from the states, executive secretaries of state SUBEB and other relevant agencies.
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