The Nigeria Governors’ Forum has said it will collaborate with the National Youth Service Corps and may consider establishing a trust fund to reduce the number out-of-school children in the country, estimated at about 20 million.
Despite the Universal Basic Education Board Act of 2004 stipulating that basic education is both free and compulsory for every child in Nigeria, there remains a huge number of children not yet enrolled in school.
Recently, the Federal Government affirmed its commitment to returning 10.2 million out-of-school children from the streets to classrooms by 2027.
Speaking recently during the inauguration of the headquarters of the National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children in Abuja, the Minister of State for Education, Yusuf Sununu, said “We intend that in the next four years, we will be able to mop up 2.5 million children back to school, each year. And also hoping that in the next four years, we should be able to take all the out-of-school children in the country or 50 per cent of the 20 million data.”
Acknowledging the Federal Government’s efforts, the NGF announced its intention to collaborate with the NYSC to recruit girl child education volunteer advocates across the 774 local government areas of the country.
The NGF’s Education Advisor, Dr. Ebenezer Leo The Great, who spoke to The PUNCH on Tuesday, explained that the volunteers would be engaged in grassroots mobilisation and would collaborate with stakeholders from communities.
He stated, “The girl child education is very broad because it has some alignment with some adopted programmes from the World Bank. And you know the World Bank has committed up to $1.2bn to the entire project.
“What we intend to do is to partner with the National Youth Service Corps to recruit girl child education volunteer advocates. And then we will organise them across the 774 local governments.
“We will empower them so that they can be involved in grassroots mobilisation and engage stakeholders from community to community; to see how they can get support for children to go to school from house to house during their Community Development Service every week.”
Leo The Great explained that the volunteer advocates would be financially empowered by the NGF, individual states and the wives of governors in their respective states.
He stated, “The emphasis is on addressing the issue of out-of-school children and providing foundational literacy to mitigate the challenge and ensure increased enrollment of children in primary school. Therefore, with the NYSC, it is expected that we will establish Girl Child Education Community Development Service groups. This will allow for a significant number of NYSC members to engage in advocacy and awareness campaigns to enroll the girl child.
“We are aiming to reduce the number of over 20 million out-of-school children. We are collaborating with the Commissioners of Education, and we are considering the possibility of establishing a Trust Fund for the States. This fund would provide scholarships for both girls and boys, with a particular focus on the girl child.
“The number of individuals empowered to carry out advocacy efforts may not be extensive, but our goal is to achieve a high enrollment rate. The offices of the First Ladies and the Commissioners of Education in the states will support the Girl Child Ambassadors and Girl Child Volunteer Advocates by empowering them to carry out their duties effectively in their respective states.”
