The Executive Secretary of Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), Prof. Ismail Junaidu, has said the piloting of Accelerated Basic Education Programme (ABEP) initiated to tackle the out-of-school syndrome which began in 54 centres in Borno has enrolled over 8,000 learners.
He said: “Preliminary result from the piloting shows that the programme is indeed a way out from the menace of out-of-school children and youth in Nigeria.’’
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The federal government, in partnership with the European Union (EU), has introduced an ABEP to enable disadvantaged children between 10 and 18 years to have access to basic education.
Presenting the programme to the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, in Abuja recently, Junaidu said it was being implemented by a project consortium including Plan International, Save the Children and others, adding that it was to reduce to the barest minimum the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria.
The target groups for the programme are those who never started schooling and are over-aged to start from the foundation.
The NERDC boss said the learning approaches would match their cognitive maturity and also provide pathways to mainstreaming learners into relevant levels of schooling based on proper profiling and effective instruction and learning.
Also, the Interim Country Director, Plan International Nigeria, Mr. Robert Komakech, said the goal of the EU was to increase access to safe, quality and inclusive education opportunities both formal and non-formal for conflict-affected children, adolescents and youth.
Komakech said it would address the specific barriers of girls and boys to improve retention and completion to achieve better learning outcomes.
Mallam Adamu, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Mr Sonny Echono, said all stakeholders would be carried along to ensure successful implementation of the programme.
He assured on pursuing the programme vigorously to achieve a 90 per cent literacy rate.
Also speaking, the Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr Hamid Bobboyi, noted that the number of out-of-school children, which is currently 10.1 million, is expected to increase following the abduction of students and the spate of insurgency.
While noting that 75 per cent of out-of-school persons reside in the North, he expressed optimism that the project will tackle the menace
