The Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, has lamented the rising out-of-school children in the state.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) had in October last year estimated out-of-school children in Nigeria to almost about 20 million, a figure more than the 10.5 million recorded by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 2020.
The World Bank had also posited that Nigeria was experiencing learning poverty in which 70 per cent of 10-year-olds could not understand a simple sentence or perform basic numeracy tasks.
Speaking during the launch of a national campaign on out-of-school children organised by the Federal Ministry of Education on Tuesday, the governor ordered the state education ministry to ensure the application of stringent laws passed by the State House of Assembly.
Diri expressed concerns over the data made available on the existence of an estimated 250,000 out-of-school children in the state despite the existence of a law passed by the state lawmakers to address the worrisome trend.
The governor, thus, urged parents to support the government and pledged to ensure full implementation of the law
