‘Why out-of-school children keep growing in Northern states’

Menace of out-of-school children will continue to grow in Northern Nigeria until those entrusted with governance and responsibility refrain from playing the ostrich.

Chairman, Board of Trustees, Arewa Consultative Forum, (ACF), Bashir Dalhatu, made the submission yesterday at the opening of Kano State Education Recovery Conference in the capital city.

He regretted that children of school age have continued to roam northern streets without basic education because, “those that can afford to take care of the situation are the highest producers of children.”

The former Minister of Power and Steel lamented the falling standard of education in the northern region owing to perennial neglect of public education and vocational training.

Dalhatu stressed that had the government not failed to deliver quality and reposition the education system, the region would have not found itself in this precarious situation.

He applauded Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf for taking a bold step to declare state of emergency on education, urging his colleagues to emulate.

On his part, the governor revealed that he inherited a near-collapse education system with dilapidated classroom blocks, thousands of pupils sitting on bare floor and under trees to receive lessons.

He said the intention of the conference was to reposition and navigate path to education excellence.

While building new reforms to reposition the foundation and build quality public education for all, the governor said his administration had voted about 30 per cent budgetary allocation to the sector in the 2024 fiscal year.

Besides, he said his administration had equally invested over N4 billion on rehabilitation and construction of new classrooms.

He appealed for collaboration of development partners and Federal Government to restore hope in the sector.

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