As Nigeria struggles to meet the goal four of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and tackle the increasing menace of out-of-school children, some states have continued to expend millions of naira on overseas training for some of their students.
In a report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), of the country’s 20 million out-of-school children, Bauchi, Kebbi, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa and 10 other states have about 10 million.
Bauchi State leads with 1,239,759; Zamfara 883,952; Kebbi 877,677; Katsina 873,633; Kano 837,479; Jigawa 784,391; Kaduna 652,990; and Gombe 567,852.
Others are Adamawa 489,855; Niger 478,412; Sokoto 462,164; Yobe 405,100; Benue 383,022; Taraba 338,975: and Borno 266,478.
To return these children to school, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) said the country would require an additional 20,000 schools and 907,769 classrooms.
Despite these challenges, states are spending billions to send their students abroad for studies.
For instance, Kano, between 2013 and 2023, spent N36.5 billion sponsoring about 115,288 students abroad.
The breakdown, according to Muhammad Garba, the Commissioner for Information and Internal Affairs in the immediate past administration of Abdullahi Ganduje, showed that the state sponsored 111, 687 students between 2013 and 2016; 1001 between 2017 and 2022, and 1001 students this year.
According to former Governor Aminu Tambuwal, Sokoto State, between 2016 and 2022, also spent about N14 billion on overseas studies for 4,600 students, including 1,120 studying medicine, engineering and other paramedic courses from universities in India, Sudan, Ukraine and Ghana, while 15 were sent to study engineering courses in China, this year.
Borno State government, between 2020 and 2023, spent N588 million on foreign scholarships and sponsored about 180 students abroad, while Kaduna, according to the immediate past governor Nasir El Rufai, spent N1.5billion in sponsoring 107 overseas for studies, during the same period.
Katsina State, according to the governor, Dikko Radda, spent N625 million on foreign scholarships between 2018 and 2023, while Adamawa State, this year, sponsored 120 students.
Learning has been disrupted, especially in the North for almost 20 years. According to a report by Save the Children group, more than 1,680 schoolchildren have been kidnapped since the 2014 abduction of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok, in Borno State, with fear of attacks stopping some children from ever attending school.
Besides, over 180 schoolchildren were killed, and 90 were injured in 70 attacks between April 2014 and December 2022, with an estimated 60 school staff kidnapped and 14 killed. Twenty-five school buildings were reportedly destroyed during the period.
The majority of these attacks took place in the North-West, followed by North-Central.
These attacks have long-lasting consequences for communities and children’s access to education, as it leads to mass withdrawal from school and closures.
In Katsina State, nearly 100 schools still remain closed due to insecurity, disrupting the learning of over 30,000 children.
In the aftermath of attacks, children and communities are left traumatised, and the majority do not receive psychological support.
A multiple Indicator Cluster Survey carried out by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and published in August 2022, showed that only 26.8 per cent of children between ages seven and 14 in Nigeria could read functionally in any language, while only 25.4 per cent could carry out basic arithmetic. – Guardian.
