The number of children not attending school in Bauchi State continues to worry the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF.
Concerns about the rising number of girl dropouts in the state, notably in the Alkaleri Local Government Area, were also raised by the UN agency.
The number of out-of-school children, particularly in Alkaleri, is alarming when compared to other local governments in the state, according to Raphael Ayedipes, the UNICEF Education Specialist in Bauchi, who spoke at a community outreach to some chosen communities in Alkaleri on Tuesday.
He claims that the Agency would launch a thorough awareness campaign to inform and enlighten the community about the importance of education in the lives of their children.
Alkaleri had the highest score among the twenty local government areas in the state, he said, “according to the UNESCO results which suggest that Bauchi has the greatest number of out of school children.
“UNICEF, however, deemed it fit to embark on creating awareness, sensitization to look for ways of improving the enrollment of school children’s back to classes at their respective schools.
“We hope at the end of the 5-day activities we’ll come up with valid and concrete data to prove our findings and forward the same to the government and authorities concerned for action.”
While this is going on, locals in Alkaleri LG have pointed the finger at poverty and economic hardship as the main causes of the disparity in the number of dropouts and out-of-school children.
Mal. Baba Barde, a 65-year-old local with 18 children, claimed that the community’s only choice is to let its kids ply their wares on the streets in order to raise money for their families.
Hadiza Usman, a mother of eight, agreed with Barde that things had become worse because of a lack of funding from the government and wealthy people.
The Director of School of Services at SUBEB, Korijo Buba, responded by stating that the government is making every effort to increase the number of students enrolled in schools across all 20 LGAs.