Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State has revealed that the number of children outside the school environment in the state has reduced to 50,000 since the coming of his administration.
Governor Ahmadu Fintiri disclosed this in his address while giving a situation report on the challenge of the out-of-school children being addressed through the free school feeding programme under the free education policy of the Government of Adamawa State.
Speaking during a campaign engagement in Hong, the hometown of Boss Mustapha Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Fintiri said it has contributed to the reduction of the school pupil population out of school in the state to less than 50,000.
According to the Governor, the number of out-of-school children in the state had drastically reduced over the last three years since he assumed office in 2019.
He explained that UNICEF data released in 2019 showed the state had over 500,000 children of school-going age out of the school system.
He, however, noted the figure has drastically reduced to less than 50,000 due to the priority the administration had given to education.
He said, ” When we came in 2019, UNICEF said, Adamawa State has over 500,000 out-of-school children. But in three years, we did our best to re-integrate these out-of-school children into the formal school system and today that population has dropped to less than 50,000.”
Governor Fintiri also promised to re-integrate the remaining 50,000 out-of-school children into the school system before the end of his tenure. The governor, who’s seeking re-election for a second term had promised to use the remaining 6 months on his first 4-year-term to accomplish that goal.
According to him, basic education had received a boost under his administration, through its free education policy, where pupils in public schools also receive free meals, as one of the cardinal programmes, under his 11-point agenda in his manifesto.
