From Magnus Eze, Enugu
A humanitarian group, De Norsemen Kclub International (DNKI)has bemoaned the alarming rate of out-of -school children in Nigeria.
The body said the worrisome trend was capable of spiking insecurity to an unmanageable level in no distant time.
President of DNKI, Chief Chidi Anokwu who stated this in his goodwill message in commemoration of Children’s Day celebrations, called
He said: “Nigeria will be gunning for a major disaster if these outrageous number of out-of-school children is not drastically reduced.
“I had thought that one of the first major policies of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Government will be to declare state of emergency on education.
“We cannot be grappling with an estimated 20.2million out-of-school children and shouldn’t be worried about insecurity in the nearest future.
“The level of insecurity that litters everywhere in Nigeria today is due to accumulated indifference to the menace of out-of-school children by successive governments.
“As we celebrate our God’s special gift; the children, we must make a deliberate effort to secure their future through compulsory, qualitative and free basic education.”
Continuing, the DNKI President said the statistics did not seem to record Nigeria on a good note regarding basic education.
Though the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) estimates Nigeria out-of-school children to be around 10.2m, UNESCO estimates the number to be 20.2 million, which is more than double the UNICEF’s number .
Additional statistics about out-of-school children in Nigeria said that only 61% of children aged 6-11 attend primary school regularly.
“Only 35.6% of children aged 36-59 months receive early childhood education.
“In the north of the country, the net attendance rate is 53%.
“More than half of the girls are not in school in the north-east and north-west states,” the DNKI stated.
Anokwu, therefore, noted that the group was disturbed by these figures.
Daily Sun gathered that the DNKI is a global organisation whose objectives centres on service to humanity through education, welfare, good governance, peaceful coexistence.
The organisation with headquarters in Nigeria has chapters in all states in the and 26 other countries of the world including America, UK, China, Russia, Ghana and Ukraine.
