Establish more schools to mop up Nigeria’s roaming children, educationists tell FG

An educationist has called on the federal and state governments to establish more schools to accommodate more out-of-school children in Nigeria.

Tokunbo Yakubu-Oyinloye, director at the Federal Education Quality Assurance Service (FEQAS), spoke to NAN in Lagos on Sunday.

She said the federal and state governments must collaborate to see how more schools can be established.

Yakubu-Oyinloye emphasised the importance education quality assurance, saying it was key to ensuring standards.

She said the FEQAS ensures that education standards are maintained in all schools at the sub-tertiary level.

Segun Olawole, an engineer, told NAN that tackling out-of-school syndrome in Nigeria would  require a multi-faceted approach.

“Addressing the issue requires the commitment of governments, civil societies, communities and families,” he said.

“Governments should increase funding of the education sector and allocate more resources for programmes to address out-of-school syndrome.”

Olawole claimed the number of children out of school keeps increasing, despite efforts by governments so far.

He said efforts should be intensified by the three tiers of government, families, communities, and civil society groups to adequately address the menace.

A teacher at Mulero High School in Agege, Lagos state, who sought anonymity, said governments should develop and effectively implement more policies to address the root causes of the menace.

He listed the causes to include poverty, conflict, and cultural barriers.

The teacher also recommended the establishment of alternative education programmes, such as non-formal education or vocational training programmes, to cater for children not in formal schools.

Adetoro Habeeb, a school principal, said there a ways for communities and governments to collaborate on decreasing the number of out-of-school children.

“Governments should support community-based initiatives that provide education and skills to out-of-school children,” the principal said.

“Governments and community leaders should also provide support, such as conditional cash transfers and scholarships, to families to enable them to send their children to school.”

One in every three Nigerian children is estimated to be out of school, including 10.2 million at the primary level and 8.1 million at the junior secondary level according to UNICEF data.

Recent data from UNESCO puts Nigeria’s out-of-school children rate at 28 million, 19.5 million in rural and 8.5 million in urban areas.

In 2024, the federal government unveiled a roadmap for reforms in the education sector to be implemented before 2027.

The policy document seeks to reduce Nigeria’s out-of-school children by 25 per cent annually, reabsorbing 15 million by 2027.

One of the objectives of the policy is to establish learning centres for accelerated basic education across the states to absorb 500,000 overage out-of-school children every year with a specialised curriculum that teachers would be trained to deploy.

It also planned to activate an open school scheme to train 500,000 over-age, out-of-school children in basic skills and entrepreneurship education annually.

The plan also seeks to integrate Islamic schools into the formal basic education system while incorporating foundational literacy and numeracy lessons into the curriculum of these non-formal settings.

As part of plans to cut Nigeria’s out-of-school rate, the education ministry also said it plans to redefine the term to exclude children who are undergoing Islamic education.

At the third 2025 ministerial press briefing in Abuja, Tunji Alausa, the minister of education, said Nigeria plans to reconstruct 195,000 classrooms and 7,000 new ones nationwide by 2027 as part of efforts to improve the country’s education sector.