FG partners state governments to tackle 10.5m out of school children

The Federal Government has expressed concerns over an estimated 10.5 million out of school children and assured that it would partner with state governments to revive basic education in the country.

While disclosing that the World Bank had offered a $500 million loan to boost children education in the country, Minister of State for Education, Professor Anthony Gozie Anwukah, said other programmes were introduced into the system to increase enrolment through the provision of better facilities and other incentives in public schools.

Anwukah made the revelation in Asaba yesterday at the 19th quarterly meeting of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and executive chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).

He explained that the federal government’s school feeding programme would continue to explore ways of promoting attendance, retention and completion of children in schools.

He said government had put measures in place for a more realistic school feeding system under the office of the Vice President Yemi Osibanjo as a social investment programme, adding that N631 million had been realised for the programme.

“The federal government is concerned about inadequate trained teaching staff in public schools and the inability of some states to pay teachers salaries as and when due.

“There have been several industrial actions in those states including absence of motivation on the part of the teachers due to failure to pay teachers’ salaries,” he said.

He stressed that no education system can rise above the equality of its teachers and that the Federal Government has reopened the N-Power portal to enable more qualified teachers to enroll in the N-Power Programme in a bid to tackle shortage of teachers.

Executive Secretary of UBEC, Hamud Bobboyi, said that Delta State had always blazed the trail in education, adding that basic education had continued to strive and excel.

He commended the federal government for its vision, commitment to the education sector and the enabling environment for teachers to work harder in realising goals of the UBE programme.