The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has described the 20 million figure for out-of-school-children in Nigeria being published by the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organisation (UNESCO) as deceptive and unverified data.
This was contained in a statement signed by the organisation’s chairman Niyi Akinsiju and secretary Cassidy Madueke according to the News Agency of Nigeria on Sunday.
According to the group, UNESCO’s claim was false and unsubstantiated because President Muhammadu Buhari has initiated many programmes to address the challenges of illiteracy among Nigerian children.
While describing the figure as misleading, it also said the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), the body responsible for basic education in Nigeria released a figure of 6.9 million children as being out of school.
NAN also reported that the group said as of 2022 a total of four million children were enrolled in the school system, based on data provided by the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA).
BMO partly said: The Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) has described the figure of 20 million out-of-school-children in Nigeria being published by the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organisation (UNESCO) as deception and unverified data. It is important to remind UNESCO that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has since inception initiated different programmes, including the home-grown school feeding programme, in order to encourage school enrolment in the country.
“So far the government’s strategies have seen the figure of out-of-school children reduce to about two million.
“We, therefore, advise UNESCO and other non-governmental organisations to tread with caution when releasing statistics relating to Nigeria’s out-of-school-children figures, to avoid misleading the public.
“It is important that at every point in time they should liaise with the relevant government agencies to avail themselves of accurate information.”
