Over One Million Out-of-School Children Return To School In 20 Months — Alausa

The Federal Government says more than one million out-of-school children have returned to classrooms in the last 20 months.

The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, disclosed this while receiving the new United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Country Representative to Nigeria, Professor Isaiah Barreto Da Rosa, in Abuja.

Alausa said the development formed part of the education reforms being implemented under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

He called for stronger cooperation between the Federal Government and UNESCO to consolidate the gains recorded in education and address remaining challenges across the sector.

According to the minister, nearly 6.7 million girls have also benefited from government interventions designed to improve school enrolment and retention.

However, he urged stakeholders to give greater attention to boys while sustaining progress in girl-child education.

Alausa said Nigeria’s human capital development strategy must ensure that neither boys nor girls get left behind.

The minister identified six priority areas guiding the government’s education reforms. They include Technical and Vocational Education and Training, STEM education, reintegration of out-of-school children, data and digitalisation, girl-child education and quality assurance.

He said the government had continued to invest in skills development, technology and teacher training, while improved data systems were helping authorities identify educational needs and measure the impact of interventions.

On teacher development, Alausa welcomed UNESCO’s technical support for the Ministry of Education’s Accelerated Teacher Professional Programme.

The programme targets one million in-service teachers and seeks to strengthen their professional capacity.

The minister also acknowledged UNESCO’s contributions to TVET assessment, digital transformation, peace education, and media and information literacy.

He stressed that international partnerships should complement programmes already established by the Nigerian government rather than operate separately from them.

Da Rosa, who spoke earlier, reaffirmed UNESCO’s readiness to support Nigeria’s education transformation efforts with technical expertise.

He said the organisation’s presence in Nigeria dates back to the 1960s and has covered areas including TVET, teacher development, science, culture, peace education, communication and information.

The UNESCO representative commended the ministry’s progress in digitising education data and expressed readiness to expand cooperation on teacher development, TVET and the reintegration of children who are out of school.

He disclosed that UNESCO-supported programmes had trained more than 28,000 teachers across several states and reached more than 1.7 million students.

Da Rosa also said UNESCO’s specialised institutes remained available to provide technical expertise in areas where Nigeria required additional support.

Alausa, in response, pledged that the ministry would maintain close cooperation with UNESCO as the Federal Government pursues its education reform agenda.

He said Nigeria would continue to mobilise domestic resources while using strategic partnerships to expand access to education, improve quality and strengthen skills development.

The minister added that the government’s broader objective was to equip both boys and girls with the knowledge and skills needed to contribute to national development.