‘Out-of-school children may hit 15 million by end of 2021’

Out-of-school children in Nigeria may hit 15 million due to insecurity, the Country Representative, Policy House International and Chairman, Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) FCT Chapter, Taiwo Akerele has said.

“Today Nigeria is faced with the crisis of out-of-school-children estimated at 10.5 million by the UNICEF (2019/2020) which Policy House International has projected to get to 15 million by the end of 2021 if the security challenges in parts of the north are not addressed and if the culture of school closures continues unabated.”

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Akerele further decried the national budget for education urging government to invest more in basic education.

“The average national budget provisioning for the entire education system accounts for less than 5% of the national budget as against the 26% recommended by the UNESCO.

“Out of this 5%, only 1.5% is provided to basic education, at the state level the situation is not different on the average nationally. This calls for serious concern.”he said.