One in every five of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria.
In the north of the country, the picture is even bleaker, with a net attendance rate of
53 percent. Getting out-of-school children back into education poses a massive
challenge.
Even though primary education is officially free and compulsory, about 10.5 million
of the country’s children aged 5-14 years are not in school. Only 61 percent of 6-11
year-olds regularly attend primary school and only 35.6 percent of children aged
36-59 months receive early childhood education.
Gender, like geography and poverty, is an important factor in the pattern of
educational marginalization. States in the north-east and north-west have female
primary net attendance rates of 47.7 percent and 47.3 percent, respectively,
meaning that more than half of the girls are not in school. The education deprivation
in northern Nigeria is driven by various factors, including economic barriers and
socio-cultural norms and practices that discourage attendance in formal education,
especially for girls.
CHILDREN EDUCATION
7
ERNEST BEBENIMIBO FOUNDATION
In Nigeria, about 10.5 million children are not in school even though
primary education is officially free and compulsory.
In north-eastern Nigeria, 2.8 million children are in need of education-inemergencies support in three conflict-affected States (Borno, Yobe, Adamawa). In
these States, at least 802 schools remain closed and 497 classrooms are listed as
destroyed, with another 1,392 damaged but repairable.
Ensuring educational provision in predominantly rural areas and the impact of
insurgency in the northeast presents significant challenges. In north-eastern and
north-western states, 29 percent and 35 percent of Muslim children, respectively,
receive Qur’anic education, which does not include basic skills such as literacy and
numeracy. The government considers children attending such schools to be officially
out-of-school.
Ernest Bebenimibo Foundation (EBF) has awarded scholarships to about 50
pupils, distributed over 5000 exercise books and bags to school, renovated a
dilapidated block of classrooms etc.