By Ahmed Abubakar, Dutse
No fewer than 17 states will get intervention to address increasing number of out of school children.
The 17 states include the North-West and north-eastern states.
An estimate of 10 million children are presently roaming the streets across the country while Jigawa is one of the worst affected by the menace including Rivers, Niger, Oyo and Ebonyi states.
Minister of state for education, Mr. Chukwuemeka Nwajiubu stated this on Thursday at the launch of the better education service delivery for all at the Manpower Development Institute MDI, Dutse.
According to the minister, “the selection of the states was based on the prevalence of the number of out-of-school children in those regions while emphasising that, “Jigawa is one of the worst hit in the ranking in Nigeria”.
Mr Chukwuemeka said the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) became effective on 22 January 2018 with the commencement of implementation processes at the Federal government level.
He said each beneficiary state is expected to commence implementation in line with the specific steps and guidelines provided under the programme.
The Minister lamented that even as there is nothing to cheer about when a single child is out of school, not to talk of the millions that are currently roam the streets, instead of being in the classroom learning.
On his part the state governor, Alhaji Muhammed Badaru Abubakar said the state government recruited 1,393 school teacher in 2018 while screening of 4,000 teachers under the J-teach programme is underway.
Alhaji Muhammed Badaru said the flagg-off and launch of the BESDA at this time is appropriate in view of the fact that reducing the number of out of school children is one of the 10 pillars of the ministerial strategic plan.
