The Federal Government said it was working towards returning 15 million out of school children to classrooms by 2027, though evasive on the current number of children that were out of school.

But the government which disclosed that it has so far brought a total of 230 out of school children back to school since the beginning of the current administration, said it was an embarrassment that Nigeria was being continually associated with the highest number of out of school children in the world.

Minister of Education,Prof. Tahir Mamman, who address newsmen, yesterday, in Abuja, said: “I will not want to bother you with the number of Out of School Children in the country, suffice it to say that it is an embarrassment that Nigeria is continually associated with the highest number of Out of School children in the world.

“We will be paying particular attention to this unacceptable phenomenum and in line with President Bola Tinubu’s commitment, would work towards returning 15 million Out of School Children to the classrooms by the year 2027. Meanwhile, 230 Out of School Children were brought back to school.

“A National Basic Education in Nigeria Bootcamp, BEN-B, summit was held in September 2023, to re-invigorate our focus on basic education, including ensuring the harmonization and coordination of resources and activities amongst all tiers of government and development partners. This was succeeded by a National Conference on Learning Crisis in Nigeria which has resulted in a framework of action to address identified challenges and bottlenecks to foundational learning in Nigeria.

“A National Policy on Senior Secondary and Re-Entry Guidelines for adolescent girls, who dropped out of school prematurely has also been developed and adopted by the National Council on Education. These two policies would considerably advance our interventions for returning more Nigerian children to school.

“To do this, we are placing a high premium on foundational and basic education, strengthening integration of existing non-formal schools into formal education systems, scaling-up adult literacy and non-formal education interventions, increasing opportunities for girl-child education and forging partnerships with all tiers of government as well as our development partners.

“We have, therefore, began operationalizing the establishment of the National Commission for Almajiri and Out of School Children, approved a policy on Early Child Care Development Education, ECCDE, and commenced engagement with State Governments on removing bottlenecks that negatively impacted on their ability to optimally utilize the Universal basic Education funds,” he said.