The State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) in Gombe State says it had plans to reduce the number of out-of-school children in the state in the 2019/2020 academic session by 15 per cent.
Mr Jonathan John, the board’s Director of Research and Statistics, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Gombe.
John said the programme would be done through the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA), in collaboration with the World Bank, to mop up no fewer than 67, 000 children off the streets.
According to him, the partnership is as a result of data from the Nigeria Education Data Survey (NEDS) 2015, which put the statistics of out-of-school children in Gombe State at 453, 000.
“Following the 2015 survey which put out-of-school children in Gombe state at 453, 000, the World Bank approached the Nigerian government with Gombe State among the 19 states for a programme called Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA).
“The programme is to mop out these children off the streets yearly by 15 per cent. We are giving in all our best because of the danger, the menace poses to the future of our children.
“ So far, all action plans, all deliveries and tools have been put in place, meetings have been concluded for the mop up of such out-of-school children for the 2019 15 per cent target.
“ UBEC through the World Bank, is going to have a 4-day meeting from July 7 in Akwanga, Nasarawa State, to finalise the modalities for this project, most especially the financial aspect of the project.
“The programme commenced in 2017 and will end in 2022. The state government is giving its counterpart funding by either expanding the present schools or building new ones in the places where all these challenges are identified.
“Presently, we are happy that the new administration of Gov. Inuwa Yahaya has keyed into the UBEC programme to see that all challenges in the Education sector are addressed,’’ he said.
According to John, the programme is result-oriented as there are indices to check as we mop the age group back to school, we will attract intervention from the World Bank.’
He stressed that the programme would soon be flagged-off in Gombe, adding that the World Bank team is already visiting states and was presently in Yobe, after which Bauchi and Gombe would be next.
John expressed confidence that the target would be met this year as a result of the present administration’s drive to resuscitate the sector by providing the needed counterpart funding to woo investment in that regard. (NAN)
