FG returns 1m out-of-school children to classrooms in 20 months

From Fred Ezeh, Abuja

Federal Government has returned more than one million out-of-school children to classrooms in the last 20 months as part of efforts to tackle Nigeria’s education crisis, Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, has said.

He also disclosed that nearly 6.7 million girls had benefited from various government interventions aimed at improving access to education and keeping children in school.

The minister spoke in Abuja when he received the newly appointed United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Country Representative to Nigeria, Prof. Isaiah Barreto Da Rosa, on a visit. He said the figures reflected the government’s continuing efforts to overhaul the education sector by expanding access, improving learning outcomes and addressing some of the longstanding barriers that keep millions of Nigerian children out of school.

Alausa, however, cautioned against concentrating interventions on one gender, saying that while progress in girl-child education must be sustained, increasing attention should also be paid to boys at risk of dropping out or being excluded from formal education.

“We must sustain the gains we have made with the girl-child, but we also need to pay attention to the boy-child,” he said.

According to him, Nigeria’s human capital development aspirations could only be realised when every child, irrespective of gender or background, had access to education and opportunities to acquire relevant skills. He identified six priority areas driving the ministry’s reforms as Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET); Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM); reintegration of out-of-school children; data and digitalisation; girl-child education; and quality assurance.

The minister said the government was equally investing in skills development, technology and teacher training to produce graduates capable of competing in a rapidly changing economy.

He explained that improved education data was increasingly being used to identify areas of need, target interventions and measure their impact rather than relying on estimates that could distort planning.

On teacher development, Alausa welcomed UNESCO’s technical support for the ministry’s Accelerated Teacher Professional Programme (ATPP), which targets the training of one million in-service teachers.

He also acknowledged the organisation’s assistance in TVET assessment, digital transformation, education for peace, as well as media and information literacy.

The minister called for deeper collaboration with UNESCO, urging the organisation to align its interventions with the Federal Government’s education reform priorities to avoid duplication and ensure measurable results. “We want partnerships that complement what Nigeria is already doing and help us deliver faster and better results.”

Alausa assured the delegation that the government would continue to combine domestic resources with strategic international partnerships to expand access, improve education quality and equip young Nigerians with skills needed for national development.

Earlier, Da Rosa pledged UNESCO’s continued support for Nigeria’s education transformation agenda, describing the organisation as a technical partner prepared to deploy expertise to areas where the country required assistance.

He recalled UNESCO’s longstanding engagement with Nigeria dating back to the 1960s, particularly in education, science, culture, communication and information.

Da Rosa commended the ministry’s progress in digitising education data, stressing that reliable statistics were indispensable to effective planning, policy formulation and implementation.

He said UNESCO was prepared to deepen collaboration with Nigeria in TVET, teacher development and programmes aimed at returning out-of-school children to classrooms.

According to him, UNESCO-supported programmes had already trained more than 28,000 teachers across states and reached over 1.7 million students.

Da Rosa added that the organisation’s specialised institutes were available to provide further technical expertise required to support Nigeria’s education reforms.