The Universal Basic Education (UBEC) in Zamfara State has launched a campaign for 2026 aimed at increasing the enrollment of out-of-school children in the state, highlighting that 95.3 per cent of these children live in rural areas.
During the official kickoff event held on Monday at the JNI Model Primary School in Gusau, Professor Nasiru Garba Anka, the Executive Chairman of the Zamfara State Universal Basic Education Board (ZSUBEB), emphasised that their focus is shifting from merely collecting statistics to taking meaningful action.
“The challenge of out-of-school children is not peculiar to Zamfara State. It is a national challenge.
According to him, UNICEF has reported that Nigeria has millions of children out of school, including about 10.2 million at primary level and 8.1 million at junior secondary level.
“Our responsibility today is to focus on our children in Zamfara State and, most importantly, to move from statistics to action.
“Through the Out-of-School Children registration and mapping exercise supported by UNICEF and implemented with ZSUBEB and other stakeholders, we have been able to identify 453,602 out-of-school children records across the 14 LGEAs for the 2024-2025 period.”
Professor Nasiru Anka said out of the identified figure,95.3 per cent, are residing in rural communities, while 21,283 children, representing 4.7 per cent, are located in local government headquarters towns classified as urban areas.
“This figure demonstrates the importance of the partnership between ZSUBEB, UBEC, UNICEF, LGEAS, communities and other education stakeholders.
“Our task now is clear, we must move from identification to enrolment, from enrolment to retention, and from retention to meaningful learning.
He maintained that the mobilisation drive would constitute all the stakeholders, including traditional rulers, religious leaders, community leaders and organisations in the state.
