17m Nigerian children age 15 to 17 out of school, UNICEF says

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNICEF, has said in a report that over 17 million Nigerian children between ages 15 and 17 are currently out of school.

This was contained in a statement by Executive Director of Mothers and Marginalised Advocacy Centre, Ola Onyegbula, on Wednesday.

Onyegbula also called for the full implementation of regulations and laws backing child rights, including access to quality education, to encourage and reinstall personal liberty and dignity of girl child at all levels in Nigeria.

Read also: Police nab 4 suspected cultists in Anambra

She said: “We are worried that half of youths between the ages of 15 and 17 in Sub-Saharan Africa (Nigeria included) are not in school, totalling more than 93 million children and youths of primary and secondary school age out of school across the region, as reported by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

“We are not unaware that about 17 million Nigerian children and youths do not have access to education and many more are without access to good education despite the growing importance of quality education to individual personal development and socio-economic prosperity.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now