President Muhammadu Buhari has reacted to why the country’s out-of-school children are increasing.
According to recent data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Nigeria has 20 million out-of-school children.
According to statistics, India, Nigeria, and Pakistan have the highest number of out-of-school children between the ages of 6 and 18.
Maryam Uwais, Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Social Investments, blamed the country’s population for the rising number of out-of-school children in a Channels Television interview watched by journalists.
She revealed that some children in Northern Nigeria were not attending school due to a N80 levy.
Uwais insisted that state governments must stand up to their responsibilities in reducing the number of out-of-school children.
“We have a population that is growing faster than our economy, and we are not targeting those issues that are increasing the numbers. There are so many differences. We need to determine the reason for these numbers. We need to be more strategic in ways to solve the problem.
“So it is essential to monitor the situation, to get the causation factor being given as feedback. We are under the National Bureau of Statistics; they can analyse the trends and address the issue.
“I will give you an example; I was in one State, I won’t tell you the State, but it is a northern state, I saw 13 children playing, and I asked them, ‘Why aren’t you in school? They gave different things, and they all had aspirations as young children. They said they aren’t in school because of N80 as Parent Levy or something like that.
“Now, if we can use such information coming from all communities or that being the most prevalent issue for out-of-school children, it can be tackled at the state government level because these are hidden levies that impact the ability to go to school,” she said.