Senate on Wednesday called for convocation of a national stakeholders’ summit to address the issue of out-of-school children in Nigeria.
The call followed the adoption of the report of Senate Committee on Education on the compelling need to tackle the challenge of out-of-school children in the country.
Presenting the report at the plenary, Chairman of the committee, Sen. Usman Adamu (APC-Kaduna) said the committee had considered the submissions of the Federal Ministry of Education on the out-of-school children challenge in Nigeria.
According to him, there is the need to activate the roadmap to curtail the issue of out-of-school children in Nigeria.
Mr Adamu said that decisive actions should be taken by the ministry, adding that there was no accurate and up-to-date data on out-of-school children in the country.
According to him, the issue deserves an urgent attention because of the negative impact inherent in the out-of-school children menace.
Mr Adamu noted that the out-of-school challenge had become a national phenomenon and accounted for the issue of insecurity and banditry in the country.
He stressed the need for synergy among federal, state and local governments toward tackling the issue headlong.
Mr Adamu said that the collaborative efforts of government at all levels, traditional and religious leaders, civil society organisations and other stakeholders were needed to put an end to the challenge.
Contributing, Sen. Ahmed Lawan (APC-Yobe) said the federal ministry of education had no clear-cut policy on out-of-school children.
Mr Lawan, who put the out-of-school children figure at around 20 million, said the National Council of Education should have a clear policy to tackle the menace.
He also said significant funding should be provided in the 2025 budget to address the issue promptly and effectively.
Also speaking, Sen. Henry Dickson (PDP-Bayelsa) said there was the need for convoking a national summit on the issue.
Sen. Solomon Adeola (APC-Ogun) commended the committee for the report, saying that successive governments had done a lot on education.
Mr Adeola said questions should be asked on why most state governments did not pay their counterpart funding on the Universal Basic Education, UBE, programme.
President of Senate, Godswill Akpabio, described the issue of out-of-school children in Nigeria as a serious matter, even as he corroborated Mr Lawan on 20 million out-of-school children.
He called for a stakeholders’ collective responsibility in promptly and vigorously addressing the issue in the country.
NAN
