Senate to convene national summit on out-of-school children challenge

The senate has resolved to convene a national summit to address the growing out-of-school children challenge in the country.

The upper legislative chamber took the decision on Tuesday after Lawal Usman, chair of the committee on education (basic and secondary), presented a report.

In a 2022 report, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) said there were 20 million out-of-school children in Nigeria.

UNESCO said Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world.

While presenting his report, Lawal said there is a need for a joint action by the federal and state governments to address the challenge.

Contributing to the debate, Solomon Olamilekan, senator representing Ogun west, said the state governments are not doing enough to tackle the issue.

“The federal government is doing a lot on universal basic education, but the sub-nationals are not providing their counterpart funds,” he said.

“It is a menace we need to tackle but we need to do more at the sub-national level.

“We should not put all the problems on the doorstep of the federal government.”

On his part, Barau Jibrin, deputy senate president, said stakeholders should come together in addressing the challenge.

“This is a ticking time bomb and when it explodes it will consume us, especially the northern part of this country,” he said.

“Islam does not allow the roaming of children on the streets. Reorientation needs to commence immediately. Stakeholders should sit down and find solutions.”

Adamu Aliero, senator representing Kebbi north, said there should be a national conference where the federal government could engage with sub-nationals in looking for lasting solutions to the problem.

“Nigeria is the only country in the world where we have over 20 million out-of-school children. I agree there should be a national conference on it,” Aliero said.

The report was adopted after it was put to a vote by Senate President Godswill Akpabio.

A date for the summit has not yet been fixed.