The Federal Government is working towards ensuring that no child is denied access to basic education, a top official said in Abuja on Thursday.
The Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesome Wike, gave the assurance at a meeting with civil society groups on education empowerment of street children.
Wike said that the Almajiri, Special Girl and Boy-child Schools would cater for the needs of less-privilege children in the country.
“One of the cardinal objectives of this administration is to create access to quality basic education opportunities to all Nigerian children of school age,” Wike said.
The minister said that government was making efforts to get less-privileged Nigerian children enrolled in schools to acquire life sustaining skills.
Wike said that government had designed projects such as Almajiri schools, Special Girl-child Schools and out-of-school projects for children in the South South and the South East.
He said that the schools would increase the enrolment of less-privileged Nigerian children in basic education.
He added: “Over 80 per cent of the Almajiri schools in parts of the country have been completed and are ready for inauguration by September ending.
“These schools will cater for the needs of roving Almajiris in the north and other parts of the country.”
The minister noted that 90 out of the 127 schools under construction had been completed and furnished.
He said that the schools would absorb a large number of Almajiris, with a framework for the construction of additional 300 schools between 2013 and 2015 already in place.
Wike said that the interesting aspect of the programme was that several states in the north had bought into it and were constructing their own schools.
He said: “The aim of these schools is to grant access to basic education to girls, who were hitherto, left out, due to cultural, religious and environmental reasons.”
The National Coordinator of Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said that government was doing its utmost in educating less-privileged children.
Onwubiko said: “We decided to invite the minister to tell Nigerians what government has done regarding the Almajiris, disadvantaged girls in the North and the boys in the South East.
“That is giving the right to education to unreached children wherever they are because if these issues are sufficiently tackled, it will lead to development in the society.
“We are not always enemies of government.
“So this dialogue is part of our mechanism for attaining greater democracy as civil society groups.”
Onwubiko said the groups were satisfied with the update provided by the minister in clearing misconceptions that the government had neglected less-privilege children.
He added that the association would send field offers to the project sites to verify what the minister had said.
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