The House of Representatives (Reps) on Tuesday, December 19, jordered an investigation into the disbursement of funds meant to reduce the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria through the Alternate School Programme (ASP), Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) and At-Risk Children Programme (ARC-P) to ascertain the role played by the various MDAs concerned.
This followed the adoption of a motion on notice by Hon. Tijani Kayode Ismail at plenary presided over by Speaker of the House, Hon. Abbas Tajudeen.
Hon. Kayode said the issue of out-of-school children in Nigeria remains a persistent challenge, despite efforts from the Nigerian government, International Development Partners, and Non-governmental organizations.
He said that in 2022, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) ranked Nigeria third among countries with the highest number of out-of-school children recording almost 20 million Nigerian children that are out of school.
He said further that in October 2019, the Ministry of Education confirmed that the Federal Government committed the sum of N10,000,000,000 for the removal of 10.2 million out-of-school children from the streets within five years to enrol two million children annually.
On 31 January 2022, he said, the Federal Government adopted the then Presidential Committee on Alternate Education report and renewed its commitment to provide educational opportunities for over 10 million out-of-school children through the Alternate School Programme (ASP) under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs. Over 200 billion Naira was allocated for the initiative.
According to him, the Alternate School Programme was an initiative of the Federal Government aimed at improving access to education for Nigerian children, eliminating or substantially reducing child begging, fostering tolerance, unity, and integration of all children with diverse backgrounds, and reviewing and approving all work and implementation plans that enhanced the effective delivery of providing alternative schooling in Nigeria.
He said a similar intervention by the World Bank worth 750Million USD was accessed and utilised within the last four years through Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) for the enrollment of out-of-school Children in Nigeria.
He also said that in 2021, the Federal government introduced the At-Risk Children Programme (ARC-P), requiring hundreds of billions of Naira in expenditure.
He expressed regrets that despite the Federal government’s efforts and the release of funds for the execution of the program, the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria continues to increase rapidly.
He said the misuse of Alternate School Programme funds to reduce out-of-school children in Nigeria has negatively impacted these schemes, leaving many children unschooled.
