NCAOOSCE to enrol 10,000 out-of-school children before September
By Eagle Eye News24
The National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children Education (NCAOOSCE) in partnership with commissioners of education of some northern states, has pledged to visit the six area councils in the nation’s capital, to identify and enroll not less than 10,000 out-of-school children before September.
The pledge was made on Friday during the inauguration of the out-of-school children enrollment champions at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
The Executive Secretary of the commission, Mohammed Idris, acknowledged the leadership and unwavering support of President Bola Tinubu, who has been instrumental in advancing efforts to eradicate the challenges faced by Almajiri and out-of-school children in Nigeria.
According to him, the commission is committed to ensuring that there will be no more street children, orphans, and out-of-school children sooner than later.
In May, the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme, said integrating Western Education with the Almajiri system was the solution for Northern out-of-school children.
According to him, as of May, the ministry had been able to enroll up to two million plus out-of-school children through several agencies.
He said, “In fact, we have an agency set up specifically for that purpose, to take care of Almajiri and out-of-school children. It’s yet to take off fully because we are still waiting for waivers from the Head of Service, recruitment and even secretariat and so there are still some headwinds in terms of the take-off of that agency, but we have not been resting.
“I liken out-of-school children to a pool of water, and if you clear that pool of water and then you are not able to close the tap which is actually feeding that pool then you are not solving the problem. So, we are working on a two-track policy of addressing out-of-school children and then trying to close that gap.”
Recall that the administration of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan spent a whopping N15 billion to establish 157 Almajiri schools across the Northern states aimed at ensuring that the almajiri pupils have western education in addition to the Islamic education they already have. That administration also implemented an ambitious Out-of-School children Programme.
