4.7m Primary School Age Children Not In School — UNICEF

If the youth are the future and education is important to the development of the youth, then the future of Nigeria is under serious threat.

Data released by UNICEF, as many as 4.7 million Nigerian children who are of primary school age are not enrolled in school.

"Forty per cent of Nigerian children aged 6-11 do not attend any primary school with the Northern region recording the lowest school attendance rate in the country, particularly for girls," the UNICEF report stated.

"Despite a significant increase in net enrollment rates in recent years, it is estimated that about 4.7 million children of primary school age are still not in school."

Even in areas where government efforts have improved enrolment figures, the quality of education on offer is nothing to write home about.

"Increased enrollment rates have also created challenges in ensuring quality education and satisfactory learning achievement as resources are spread more thinly across a growing number of students," the report further stated.

The report also underlined the scarcity of quality teachers and many other shortcomings as problems that need urgent attention.

"However the number of schools, facilities and teachers available for basic education remain inadequate for the eligible number of children and youths."

Only recently, the it was reported that about 70 percent of the candidates that sat for the May/June West African Examinations Council (WAEC) failed to obtain five 5 credits including English language and Mathematics.

Also, at the university level, the 2014 UNIVERSITY WEB RANKINGS for Africa released by International Colleges and Universities (ICU), showed that, but for the presence of University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) in the 20th position, Nigerian would have missed out on the top 20 universities in Africa.

What do you think can be done to salvage the situation and save the future?