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SUBEB Records 240,000 Children Out Of School In Ondo

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The Ondo State Universal Basic Education Board has expressed worry over the rate at which children are out of school.

The board disclosed that no fewer than 240,000 children were out of school in the state. This development, SUBEB described as alarming.

It, however, noted that the state government was making efforts to stop the menace.

The Chairman of the Ondo SUBEB, Mr Victor Olabimtan disclosed this on Tuesday at a meeting with some journalists in the state.

“From the statistics, Ondo has 240,000 out-of-school children. This is alarming. But it is not happening only in Ondo State, that is how the problem is in other states of the federation.”

Olabimtan, however, stated that the government has put in place some measures to ensure all children of the state are educated.

Part of the measures, according to him, is the plan to employ more teachers in the primary schools and make the school attractive to the pupils. He added that a total of 900 public primary schools have been completely renovated to be conducive to the learning of the pupils.

He said, “As part of the efforts to combat head on the growing menace of Out of School children in the State, UBEC in conjunction with Ondo SUBEB under the Better Education Service Delivery For All training project organised weeks-long training for stakeholders in the sector on the Basic Attendance Management Information System. The training was very successful as over 900 schools were provided with digital devices for attendance management of pupils in classrooms.

“This is to be done side by side with the traditional means of attendance marking through the use of daily registers. To ensure seamless operations of devices and effectiveness of the project education secretaries, Zonal and Area Education Officers and Education Management Information System officers also undergone training.”

The chairman also stated that the board had been able to do the renovation of the schools and provide educational materials for the pupils from the UBEC fund after the state had been able to pay its counterpart fund of N3.9 billion.

“When this government came on stream on February 24, 2017, the state of infrastructures and quality of curriculum in most of our schools were nothing to write home about. Most of the structures in our primary schools were in a state of despair, becoming a haven for dangerous reptiles and men of the underworld and miscreants who have taken over schools as their homes thereby endangering the lives of the pupils and the teachers alike.

“This was the situation the present government inherited and the government latched onto the opportunity by paying the matching grants put at over N3.9 billion with an additional same amount from UBEC. The government was able to turn around the narrative for the better.

“With the fund, the board has been able to construct, reconstruct and Rehabilitate over 900 classrooms, fences, bole – holes, toilets, provided learners chairs and desks, tables for their teachers, ECCD equipment, sporting equipment as well as Instructional materials for pupils and their teachers value at over N2.2billion to make our schools more attractive for both teaching and learning,” Olabimtan said.

The SUBEB chairman noted that the effects of this investment of the state government had already been yielding positive results in the performance of teachers and pupils in the internal and external examinations.

“Last year, our students performed excellently at a National JET Competition in far away, Nasarawa State, where they came first and third in both primary and junior secondary school categories respectively,” He stated.

According to statistics from the United Nations Children’s Fund, 1 in 3 children are out of school in Nigeria with 10.2 million at the primary level and 8.1 million at the junior secondary school level1 while 12.4 million children never attended school and 5.9 million left school early.

UNICEF added that Nigeria’s out-of-school population accounts for 15% of the global total.


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