by David Shedrack

The Universal Basic Education Commission, on Monday, said the estimated figure of the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria is no longer relevant.

The commission also noted that the availability of correct data on out-of-school children in the country depends on the conduct of a nationwide census.

THE SWATTV reports that there have been controversies over the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria.

Early 2023, the United Nations Children Emergency Fund estimated the total number of out-of-school children in Nigeria to be over 20 million.

However, the outgoing Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu, said though Nigeria accounts for 12.4 per cent of the out-of-school children in Sub-Saharan Africa,  the number was not as much as that  given by the UN agency.

“Our education challenge is an open secret; out of 258 million out-of-school children worldwide, an estimated 62 million are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria accounts for eight million, which is 12.4 per cent of the out-of-school children in sub-Saharan Africa,” Adamu had said.

Speaking during a colloquium held in honour of the pioneer Executive Secretary of UBEC, Prof. Gidado Tahir, the present UBEC boss, Prof.Hamid Boboyi notably said, “The estimate they have been making are no longer relevant, so that is the reason we  are very desperate for a national census that can give us an idea of our accurate population.”The national population census, which was meant to be held in May 2023, was postponed to an indefinite date by the regime of the outgoing President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari(retd).