UNESCO Raises Fresh Alert, Says 258 Million Children, Adolescents, Youth Are Out Of School

Lagos – Fresh data released by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics (UIS) on Friday, says about 258 million children, adolescents, and youths were out of school in 2018.

Besides, the new data on the world’s out-of-school children reveal further that little or no progress has been recorded for more than a decade.
The UIS data also lamented that girls continue to face the greatest barriers, saying 9 million girls of primary school age will never spend a day in school compared to about 3 million boys.
It added that in sub-Saharan Africa, which has the highest rates and numbers of out-of-school children, 4 million girls will never set foot in a classroom compared to 2 million boys.
Reinforcing the concerns about the prospects of reaching global education targets by 2030, it stated that a highlight on out-of-school children among world’s richest and poorest countries showed that 19% of primary age children (roughly 6 to 11 years old) are not in school in low-income countries, compared to just 2% in high-income countries.
It added that the gap is growing even wider for older children and youth with about 61% of all youth between the ages of 15 and 17 out of school in low-income countries compared to 8% in high-income countries.
Admitting that the number appears to have dropped from 262 million in 2017 as reported last year, it attributed the fall largely to a methodological change in the way the indicators are calculated.
“Children of primary school age who are in pre-school, who were previously included in the total, are no longer counted as being out of school.
“Until recently, all children of primary age (roughly 6 to 11 years) who were not enrolled in primary or secondary school were counted as being out of school. This included primary-age children who were still enrolled in pre-primary education.
“By removing this relatively small group of children (most of them in high-income countries), the total number of out-of-school children of primary age has been reduced by about 4.6 million,” the report added.
A UNICEF publication said one in every five of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria.
It added that though primary education is officially free and compulsory, about 10.5 million of the country’s children aged 5-14 years are not in school as the picture is even bleaker, with a net attendance rate of 53 per cent in the north of the country.
However, a contradictory figure released by the Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu in July 2019 puts the number of out-of-school children in the country at over 16 million.
Adamu who spoke during the screening of ministerial nominees by the Senate said the 16 million figure was based on a February 2019 census and explained that out-of-primary-school children stood at 10 million, while children out-of-secondary-school are six million.
He blamed the high number on poor funding of education in the country by states and the federal government.