N’East Stakeholders Call for Establishment of Agency for Out-of-School Children

From Paul Orude Bauchi

Stakeholders in the North East have called for the establishment of directorates/ agencies for out –of- school children in Nigeria to tackle the high number of OOSC in the  country.

They lamented that OOSC in the country in general and the north east in particular remain high despite efforts by government.

They believed that establishment of directorates/agencies would scale up foundational literacy and numeracy.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says Nigeria’s OOSC population accounts for 15% of the global total, with 66% of all OOSC in the country found in Northeast and Northwest.

The stakeholders made the call on Thursday in a communique issued at the end of the North east states strategic policy dialogue on social budgeting for the child sensitive sector in Nigeria held in Gombe.

The meeting was organized by the state governments in the region  to increase budget allocation and release for children’s expenditure.

The communique was signed by commissioners for Budget and Economic Planning of each state in the North East namely Adamawa, Bauchi, , Gombe, Taraba and Yobe respectively, and made available to journalists.

However, the Borno State Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning was unavoidably absent and did not sign the communique.

The stakeholders, numbered 120, were drawn from the states in the region for the dialogue aimed to catalyse increased public funding for child sensitive sectors and improved social service delivery outcomes in education among others.

 The communique also recommended increased budgetary allocation and release by government annually by two per cent to the social sector to help tackle challenges of children.