The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has said Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (2021) showed that there are currently about 10.2 million primary school children who are out of school in Nigeria, with 16 per cent of them from Kano, Jigawa and Katsina states.

Chief of UNICEF Field Office in Kano, Mr. Rahama Rihood Mohammed Farah, said this during a press briefing on International Day of Education (IDE) 2025.

He said the programme was organized to leverage the advocacy moment of the IDE as well as to highlight the significance of education and its role in fostering a well-informed, inclusive, and peaceful society.

According to him, while the specter of Out of School Children (OOSC) is a major concern, the challenge is that even those children who have the opportunity to be enrolled in school are not having quality education, adding that the MIC report showed that only 1 out of 4 children in Nigeria, aged 7-14 years can read and understand simple sentence or solve basic arithmetic.

?Across Kano, Jigawa and Katsina states, this challenge is staggering: Tests conducted by the Federal Ministry of Education in 2022 found that Foundational Learning rates stand at 11 per cent or lower in the three states of Kano, Jigawa and Katsina. For instance, only 2% of primary school learners in Jigawa state have foundational reading skills while less than 1% have numeracy skills. Although Kano figures appear better at 9.6% for reading proficiency, and 11.2% for numeracy, these figures are way lower than the national averages of 26% per cent for Reading proficiency and 25% for Numeracy respectively.

?Across the states of Kano, Jigawa and Katsina, the UNESCO bench mark is being met and exceeded when it comes to appropriation. Unfortunately, budgetary appropriations to the education sector across Kano, Jigawa and katsina have not been matched with actual release and spending of appropriated funds and this needs to be addressed,? he said. (Daily Trust)

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