Zulum laments high population of out-of-school children

Governor Babagana Umara Zulum said the growing number of out-of-school children in the state was becoming worrisome to the government.Speaking  at the foundation-laying ceremony of a Higher Islamic Education School at Monguno the governor said that there were more than 100,000 out-of-school children spread across the IDP camps in the town aloneHe said that most of the children were above the age of 10.Prof. Zulum said the higher Islamic schooling would operate a curriculum combining Islamic and Western education for a total character reform and development.

He said the Monguno school, which is in the Northern Borno Senatorial District, was one of the three such schools to be built,  in each of the state’s three senatorial districts.

The Monguno Higher Islamic Education School, to be constructed at N521 million, with N75 million already approved for takeoff, is a two-storey building, comprising 60 classrooms, an administrative block and a multipurpose hall.

Handled by the State Ministry of Reconstruction, Rehabilitation and Resettlement, the project is to be completed before June, 2020.

Kanem Trust reports the increasing population of out-of-school children in Boko Haram-troubled Borno State has continued to arouse grave concern among stakeholders in the humanitarian crisis management caused by the insurgency group.

Already, over the years since the peak of the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast in 2014, Borno State has persistently lamented of having about 55,000 children orphaned by the insurgency.

This situation necessitated the state government to embark on the establishment of mega schools and mega classrooms across the state for the dual purposes of absorbing back these orphans to schools for more qualitative education as well as providing ample access to qualitative education for all school-age children.

There are now about 50 of such schools and classrooms, most of them located in Maiduguri metropolis, comprising Maiduguri Metropolitan Council and Jere Local Government Area.

Such schools and classrooms have continued to flower across the state.

The mega-school concept is built on the postulation of Nobel Laureate, Malala Yousafzai: ‘With gun, you can kill a terrorist; with education, you can kill terrorism’, which serves as the foundation for the state government upholding education as the most potent weapon against the insurgency.

With the rescue of more captives from Boko Haram and the displacement of more communities by the insurgents in the recent sporadic attacks across the region, the population of such out-of-school children has continued to rise in IDP camps and host communities across the state.