There is growing concern over the large number of students dropping out of schools in the South West of Nigeria.

The United Nation’s Children Fund (UNICEF) says this menace is contributing to the prevalence rate of out-of-school children in Osun, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti and Lagos states.

Quoting the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) conducted by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the UNICEF Education Specialist, Mr Babagana Aminu, said while 60 percent complete primary school in the region, the transition rate into secondary school is less than 50 percent.

The data shows that school completion rate in the South West is 92.6 percent for primary school, 85.3 for the lower secondary school and 72.9 percent at the upper secondary school.

While teenage pregnancy was identified as major diver of school dropout among girls in the region, financial constraints inhibit boys from poor homes from completing their education.

UNICEF Education Specialist, Mrs Azuka Menkiti called for urgent action to address the menace, saying that girls should be supported to compete their education to become successful in life and useful to the society.

The need to address this challenge prompted UNICEF to organise a 2-day meeting on out-of-school children and retention, transition and completion model for the South West region.

The Officer in Charge of UNICEF Lagos Field Office, Mr Muhammed Okorie while addressing participants at the meeting held in Ibadan, Oyo State capital charged government of South West States to address and curb School dropout syndrome in their respective states.

He said "Looking at it from the angle of leave no one behind, then we are not looking at how much we have achieved but how much we are yet to achieve. From the data, for the set of children that fell under the category that could not complete school, whose family should they be from? We heave the mandate as duty bearers to ensure we reach everybody. We know there might be reasons, but the most important thing is that we must bring them back to school and ensure they complete their education.

The Lagos and Ogun State Commissioners for Education, Mr Jamiu Ali-Balogun, and Prof Abayomi Arigbabu expressed gratitude to UNICEF on behalf of government of the six South West states for supporting the states to tackle the problem.

Stakeholders in the education sector from the six states who attended the meeting said the move was imperative towards finding solution to school dropout challenge in the South-West.

The stakeholders said they are committed to efforts that would ensure that no child is left behind in education.

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