How Nigeria’s 18.3m out-of-school children cripple economy

Shanono Adamu, a 10-year-old girl from Bunza Local Government Area in Kebbi State, spends her days sitting around a major road in Ketu, Lagos, with her family and other children begging for alms.

Shanono does not know her father and has never attended school all her life. Every day, she, her two siblings and mother leave a make-shift wooden shelter at Ojuelegba at 7am and return home around 6.30pm. Her family eat crumbs from people’s tables and are not sure of tomorrow. It was not always like this with her family until terrorists chased them out of their farmland in April 2023.

Shanono and her two sisters are now among 18.3 million children shut out of school by worsening insecurity and accelerating poverty in Africa’s most populous nation, according to the United Nations Children Agency (UNICEF).

“The higher the number of out-of-school children in the country, the higher the level of illiteracy, insecurity, and poverty among others,” Busayo Aderounmu, lecturer at Covenant University, Ogun State.

Read also: Ondo moves to boost enrollment, tackle out of school children syndrome

Aderounmu said the country is faced with a learning and economic crisis mainly fuelled by the rising numbers of out-of-school children.

“This implies that the economy will face serious problems in the future if the issue is not curbed in time,” she said.

According to Tushar Rane, UNICEF’s Chief of Bauchi Field Office, the 18.3 million figure positions Nigeria with the challenge of having the largest number of out-of-school children globally, noting that only 63 percent of primary school-age children regularly attend school in Nigeria.

He said in May 2024 that only 84 percent of Nigerian children move to junior secondary schools after completing their primary schools.

He ascribed the situation to limited budgets, lack of adequate evidence-based policies, teacher and classroom shortages, poor infrastructure, cultural norms, health and safety concerns, and child labour, among others.

Familoni Olajumoke, the chairman and founder of the International Centre for Leadership and Entrepreneurial Development (ICLED), said the high number of out-of-school children has grave economic implications for the country.

Read also: Gov Bala, National Library to address challenges facing out of school children in Bauchi

He noted that the high numbers will negatively impact Nigeria’s human capital development, urging the government to be intentional about addressing the issue and improving learning outcomes in the country.

Abductions of school children for ransom have become an almost daily occurrence in recent years.

In March 2024, gunmen kidnapped more than 200 school pupils in the northern town of Kuriga in Kaduna State.

Kidnapping at schools in Nigeria was first carried out by Boko Haram, which seized about 276 students from a girls’ school in Chibok, Borno State, a decade ago. Some of the girls have still not been released.

The top three states grappling with the highest percentages of out-of-school children in the country are Kebbi, Sokoto, and Yobe.

Kebbi has a staggering 67.6 percent figure, while Sokoto has 66.4 percent. Yobe State has 62.9 percent where children aged 6–15 are out of school.

Not fewer than seven out of every 10 out-of-school children miss out on formal education in Kebbi State due to poverty and inadequate infrastructure, UNICEF said in its most recent report on Nigeria.

According to experts, kidnappings and worsening poverty rates are major reasons for the withdrawal of children from schools, especially in northern Nigeria.

“Lots of factors can be attributed to have caused the increase in the high rate of out-of-school children but kidnapping and poverty are the main drivers,” Aderounmu noted.

UNICEF’s study shows that the issues characterising Nigeria’s education system are the backdrop of high insecurity in Katsina and Zamfara states; low financing to education; poorly resourced schools; low teacher competency levels and high pupil-teacher ratio, among others.

These factors, UNICEF said, have led to low overall education attainment, hamper social and economic opportunities for young people, and perpetuate intergenerational cycles of poverty and inequality.

“In 2021 alone, a least 25 schools were attacked, directly impacting 1,446 learners and 24 personnel. About 76 percent of the attacks took place in the Northwest.

“Kaduna was the most frequently attacked, with eight out of 25 attacks. Katsina had 344 learners, followed by Zamfara State’s 327 learners who reported the highest number of abductees taken in a single abduction.

“As a precautionary measure, in the 2020/21 academic year, over 11,000 schools were closed for four months, significantly disrupting the education of 1.3 million children,” UNICEF reported.

Read also: 100m children, youth out of school in Africa – AU

Low education budget

The UN body decried that education financing in Nigeria has not kept pace with a burgeoning demand for learning and the high population rate.

“Nigeria spends 1.2 percent of GDP on education, far lower than other African countries and notably lower than the international benchmark of four to six percent.

“Insufficient domestic financing results in a shortfall of 378,000 classrooms and approximately 278,000 teachers.

“This leads to high student-teacher ratios (that’s 55:1 at the primary level) and additional pressure on teachers whose capacity is already limited, as 50 percent of basic education teachers lack the Nigerian Certificate in Education (NCE) or the minimum teaching qualification.”

“Moreover, in each workday, 20 percent of primary school teachers are absent,” the report indicated.

Why education is critical

Kingsley Moghalu, president of the Institute for Governance and Economic Transformation, said that education empowers citizens to realise their full potential.

“Functional education inculcates much to learners beyond the prescribed academic curriculum and encourages the development of social behaviour that will be useful to them in the future.

“Well-educated individuals are not only confident to lead fulfilling personal lives but also actively engage in problem-solving within their societal contexts, thereby elevating overall societal welfare and fostering social cohesion,” he said.

A look at Nigeria’s human capital development indicates that the missing gap in its quest for growth and socioeconomic well-being is the low level of the education system.

Kayode Afolayan, a teacher, said; “Human capital development is greatly lacking in Nigeria as a result of the increasing menace of out-of-school children which has amassed over the years.”