The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has revealed that Nigeria needs to build an additional 20,000 schools and 907,769 classrooms to accommodate the increasing number of out-of-school children in the country.
This disclosure was made by the Executive Secretary of UBEC, Hammed Boboyi, during a briefing to the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman. The information was relayed in a statement by the Director of Press at the Federal Ministry of Education, Ben Goong.
The actual number of out-of-school children in Nigeria has been a subject of controversy. Although the official figure for out-of-school children in Nigeria as of September 2023 is not independently verified due to the delay in conducting the national census, a 2022 report by UNESCO estimated that Nigeria had approximately 20 million out-of-school children.
The Nigerian government, during the tenure of former President Muhammadu Buhari, argued that the country only accounted for 12.4% of the total number of out-of-school children in sub-Saharan Africa. However, experts pointed out that UNESCO’s statistics covered out-of-school children aged 6-18 years, while the Federal Government’s focus was limited to those aged 6-11 years, leading to discrepancies in the reported figures.
The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, emphasized the importance of prioritizing basic education in Nigeria, recognizing it as the foundation of the education sector and a critical component for national development. He called on all Nigerian states to demonstrate greater commitment by providing counterpart funding to accelerate the development of basic education.
During the briefing, UBEC’s Executive Secretary, Dr. Hamid Boboyi, highlighted challenges facing the Commission, including infrastructural gaps and inadequate manpower, in its efforts to ensure equitable access to quality basic education.