In what is being described as the most aggressive offensive against Nigeria’s out-of-school children crisis in recent memory, the Minister of Education, Professor Tahir Alausa, has revealed that the Federal Government has successfully returned over one million children to the classroom within the last 30 months.
The Minister made this disclosure during a strategic review meeting with key stakeholders in the basic education sector in Abuja. The milestone serves as a centerpiece of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration’s “Renewed Hope” agenda for the education sector, which seeks to halve the estimated 20 million out-of-school children population by the end of the first term.
Breaking the Cycle of Exclusion
For decades, the image of the “street child”—whether the Almajiri in the North or the child hawker in the South—has been a persistent scar on the nation’s developmental profile. Speaking with a mix of data-driven confidence and professional urgency, Alausa noted that the 1,000,000+ figure is not merely a “paper statistic” but the result of a multi-pronged intervention involving the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), state governments, and international development partners.
“We recognized early on that we could not solve this problem from the comfort of our offices in Abuja,” the Minister stated. “Over the last 30 months, we have deployed a grassroots-heavy model. We have gone into the communities, engaged traditional rulers, and incentivized enrollment through the revitalization of the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (NHGSFP).”
The Mechanics of Enrollment: A Three-Pillar Strategy
According to the Ministry’s breakdown, the success of the last 30 months rests on three critical pillars:
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Infrastructure Expansion: The construction of over 2,000 new classrooms and the renovation of existing ones in high-density areas to accommodate the influx of new students.
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The Almajiri and Out-of-School Children Commission: The operationalization of this specialized agency has allowed for a streamlined approach to integrating non-formal education systems into the national curriculum.
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Digital Tracking: For the first time, the Ministry is utilizing a more robust Education Management Information System (EMIS) to track attendance and ensure that children returned to school actually stay in school.
Challenges on the Horizon
While the one million milestone is significant, Alausa was quick to warn against complacency. With millions still on the streets, the Minister emphasized that the Federal Government cannot do it alone. He pointed out that while the center provides policy and funding through UBEC, the “heavy lifting” of maintaining school standards and paying teacher salaries falls on the State Governments.
“The 30-month success story is a proof of concept,” Alausa remarked. “It shows that with political will, the numbers can move. But we need the Governors to match our zeal. We need the 13% derivation and the local government allocations to reflect a ‘state of emergency’ in education.”
