60 percent of out-of-school girls are located in Northeast – Centre LSD

A non-governmental organization, African Center for Leadership, Strategy and Development (Centre LSD) has said about sixty percent of out-of-school girls in Nigeria are located in the North East.

The Executive Director, Centre LSD, Mr. Monday Osasah, disclosed this while addressing newsmen, saying the situation is exacerbated by the insurgency and insecurity in the region.

He reiterated that the baseline study conducted by the centre heralded the implementation of its C-Cage project with funding from the Malala Fund.

Osasah noted that Adamawa state has 886,634 out-of-school children, hence why the pilot project targeted the state first.

He explained that Maiha local government has the highest number of out-of-school girls with 66.7% followed by Song LGA, with 63.3% and Numan LGA with 45% which can be problematic.

In a bid to change the narrative, the Centre said it has trained 150 education stakeholders which comprises of traditional/religious leaders, Parent Teachers Associations (PTA) and School Based Management Centers (SBMC) which led to increase in enrolment of girls who are now back to school.

Mr. Osasah noted the challenge of inadequate structure in schools, insufficient and unqualified teachers.

He called for media engagement with Center LSD in order to keep the issues of girl-child education a public agenda so as to sensitize the general public on the consequences of not educating the child.

He commended the Adamawa state government for declaring a state of emergency in education and making education free in the state.