Five civil society organisations (CSOs) under the Malala Fund Education Champions said the North East has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world, while Adamawa has the highest number in Nigeria, with girls taking the lion’s share.
Speaking at a townhall on the state-level education manifesto for political candidates in Adamawa, a lecturer at Moddibo Adama University (MAU), Yola, Jamila Suleiman, said Adamawa education infrastructure has decayed.
On funding, women rights campaigner, Emmanuella Nwahiri, urged the state government to earmark 22 per cent of its yearly budget to fund education properly. Nwahiri said the state government should improve welfare and capacity building for all teachers through professional development programmes.
She advocated the implementation of the Safe Schools Plan of Action and the National Policy on Safety, Security and Violence-free schools.
The CSOs blamed early marriage, location of schools and poor hygiene as some of the factors that affect girls’ education in Adamawa.
Over 40 candidates of different political parties, traditional rulers, religious leaders, students and teachers from select government schools in the state attended the townhall.
Some of the participants made an appeal to the government to fix the situation.
