The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, on Thursday, called for more funds allocation to the Almajiri System of Education to tackle out-of-school syndrome in the country.
Alausa made the call when the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund led by its Chairman, Sen. Muntari Dandutse, visited the ministry for an oversight function.
Alausa, who was newly posted to the ministry, decried the high rate of out-of-school children, saying that with enough fund allocation, the menace would be tackled.
“We have up to 20 million out-of-school children.
“I met with the Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School, who said that the 20 million was even under-quoted.
“It is about 40 million to 50 million. This is a danger that can consume everybody. We have to make these schools work.
“Former President Goodluck Jonathan built about 137 Almajiri schools during his tenure, but today, it is sad that only a few of these schools are operational,” he said.
Alausa said that there was a lot of infrastructural decay in the schools, adding that with the Almajiri Commission established by an act of Parliament, the ministry would empower the children.
He, however, called for more funding to achieve the desired goal of ensuring that out-of-school children were taken off the streets.
The minister further said that the ministry would find a way of keeping children in school by making the Home Grown Feeding Programme viable and sustainable.
“We will design the nutrition, we will ensure that the children get good nutrition which will translate into better brain development, and enable us to develop human capital,” he said.
He also said that the nation was churning out graduates that were not employable.
“We have to refocus, and the way we are refocusing is that going forward, we will focus on Science Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medical Sciences (STEMM).
“Today, we have hospitals built, infrastructure is there and funded, but we do not have medical personnel to run them.
“We will also focus on technical, and vocational education. We will encourage 80 per cent practical training and 20 per cent theory,” she said.
The Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Muntari Dandutse, said that the Senate would collaborate with the ministry to make education a priority in the country.
Dandutse also called on the minister to give attention to the issues of security and power supply to higher institutions.
“Most of the allocation to the universities is going to the payment of electricity bills. We need to work together to ensure that they have an uninterrupted power supply,” he said.