Researcher Decries Anambra’s 90,000 Out-Of-School Children

Posted by Tolulope Ogugua Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria, News From The State Wednesday, September 22nd, 2021

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – Dr Ben Nwosu, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Development Studies, University of Nigeria, Enugu, on Wednesday decried the 90, 000 out-of-school children in Anambra State, describing the situation as worrisome.

Nwosu said this at a project close-out and unveiling of Data Management System, organised by the Evidence and Collaboration for Inclusive Development (ECID), in partnership with Christian Aid, in Awka.

He said that the data was originated from a research tagged: “Access improvement to basic service delivery through voice for the most marginalised groups in Anambra and Kaduna states”.

According to him, some of the reasons for the statistics were lack of infrastructure, lack of teachers and parents claimed they still pay school fees, especially at secondary school level, in spite of the free education policy.

“It is quite worrying that 90,000 children are out of school. Based on official statistics, Anambra is one of the educationally advantaged states in the country.

” It is more worrying when you go into the field and see the wide data gap of out-of-school children existing between the rural and urban locations.

“Maybe what exists in more developed parts of the state swallows those of the rural areas where you see dilapidated infrastructure, with pupils running around due to absence of teachers,” he said.

Nwosu urged the government to work hard to ensure that school-aged children were fully enrolled in schools.

He also urged the state government to emulate the Kaduna state model of School Census, which involved finding out existing infrastructure, manpower and general data in the education sector to aid subsequent interventions, planning and budgeting.