Vice President Kashim Shettima has sayid that children “abandoned to the streets are a liability that the nation will one day pay for.”
Shettima who spoke at the International Conference on Girl Child Education in Nigeria at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Organised by the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) noted that the dignity of the girl child defined every civilisation, noting that Nigeria was bound by a duty higher than merely observing the challenges before the country.
The vice president who was represented by Senator Ibrahim Hadejia, the Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, said, “The statistics of our out-of-school children in Nigeria are a stark reminder of the urgency of this mission. The latest multiple indicator cluster survey showed that 25.6% of children of primary school age are out of school, and this rate rises to 29.6% for secondary school age children. Each child abandoned to the streets is a liability that the nation will one day pay for.
“We must therefore remember that the child who remains out of school today will be a threat to their peer in the classroom tomorrow, and we cannot afford to turn away from this reality, and the need for creative and innovative solutions is now more present than ever.”
Shettima said education of the girl child was more than a moral obligation, noting that the for every additional year a girl remained in school, her future earning potential increased, infant mortality rates decreased, and the poverty level in communities reduced.
“We see this reflected in the gender parity index, which shows that girls have almost caught up with boys at the primary school level with a ratio of 0.99 and even surpassed boys at secondary school level with a ratio of 1.08. These gains are, however, at risk unless we intensify our interventions to reach every girl, particularly in areas where barriers remain strongest.
“This is why, at the National Economic Council, we have set out to guarantee the future of a girl child, adopting education as one of our critical thematic areas of intervention, alongside health, nutrition and employability in a rapidly changing world.”