Children of school age on ring road, Benin city, Edo State. Harsh economic condition forced children out of school. They are every where scavenging for food and waste to turn to money for their survival and their parents. In bad economies, child labour is expunged from their lexicon.
In line with UNICEF policy, all children, no matter where they live or what their circumstances, have the right to quality education.
Even though primary education is officially free and compulsory, about 18.3 million of the Nigeria’s children aged 5-14 years are not in school. Only 61 percent of 6-11 year-olds regularly attend primary school and only 35.6 percent of children aged 36-59 months receive early childhood education.
UNICEF noted that this alarming figure positions Nigeria as the country with the highest number of out-of-school children globally.
In the north of the country, the picture is even bleaker, with a net attendance rate of 53 percent. Getting out-of-school children back into education poses a massive challenge.
In north-eastern Nigeria, 2.8 million children are in need of education-in-emergencies support in three conflict-affected States (Borno, Yobe, Adamawa). In these States, at least 802 schools remain closed and 497 classrooms are listed as destroyed, with another 1,392 damaged but repairable.
ᴘʜᴏᴛᴏ ʙʏ: 𝑰𝒔𝒂𝒂𝒄 𝑱𝒊𝒎𝒐𝒉 𝑨𝒚𝒐𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒆
𝐼𝑓 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑝𝑦 of 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑒, 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑖𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑢𝑠 (with the tag #OutOfSchool) at: pjanweb@gmail