The Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, has said that over two million students have been enrolled in school since he assumed office as Minister six months ago.
Mamman made this statement during an interview on Channels TV in Abuja.
The Minister said that the Federal Government aims to resolve the issue of out-of-school children and eliminate the shortcomings that cause students to be left out of the education system.
Mamman stated that his ministry has established an agency for this specific purpose, awaiting the implementation of certain measures before the agency begins operation.
“What we’ve been able to do in the last six months since we came on board is to enroll up to two million plus out-of-school children through the help of about four agencies of the ministries.
“As a matter of fact, we have an agency set up for the specific purpose. We are still waiting for waivers for the head of service, for requirements and evening secretariat.
“So, there are still some headwinds in terms of agency, but we have not been resting,” Mamman stated.
Furthermore, the Minister commented on the accuracy of the UNESCO data that over 20 million Nigerian students are out of school.
According to him, the Ministry is working to procure accurate data and settle the figures once and for all, particularly for the enhancement of the education system in the country.
He, however, said the government is addressing the issue of the millions of students that are not integrated in the education sector in the meantime, regardless of the accuracy of the current figures.
“Well, I don’t want to go into the issue of figures whether 10.2 million or more. But the fact is that we have millions of Nigeria who are supposed to be in school and who are not in school at this point in time.
“We are addressing that problem of figures. It is one of the four anchor pillars our ministry is working with.
“How many people do we have out of school? For once, we can settle the issue of out of school children data, particularly in the education sector which I preside over,” he added.
According to the latest data by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 20 million children are out of school in Nigeria.
In addition, 12.4 million children never attended school and 5.9 million left school early, the report showed.
The report noted that out of the 98 million out-of-school children in Sub-Saharan Africa, 20 million of them are Nigerians.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government said measures are being implemented to obtain the correct figures of out-of-school children in the country, while addressing, in the short term, the issue of out-of-school students in the education system.
