Zamfara targets 453,602 out-of-school children, 95.3% in rural areas

The Zamfara State Universal Basic Education Board has launched a 2026 campaign to enrol 453,602 out-of-school children identified across the state, with 95.3 per cent of them living in rural communities.

The campaign, launched on Monday at the JNI Model Primary School in Gusau, is being implemented by ZSUBEB in partnership with the Universal Basic Education Commission, UNICEF, local governments, communities and other education stakeholders.

Speaking at the event, the Executive Chairman of ZSUBEB, Prof Nasiru Garba Anka, said the state was shifting its attention from merely documenting the number of out-of-school children to taking concrete steps to enrol and retain them in school.

“The challenge of out-of-school children is not peculiar to Zamfara State. It is a national challenge,” Anka said.

He said UNICEF had reported that millions of Nigerian children were out of school, including about 10.2 million at primary level and 8.1 million at junior secondary level.

“Our responsibility today is to focus on our children in Zamfara State and, most importantly, to move from statistics to action,” he said.

Anka said the out-of-school children registration and mapping exercise, supported by UNICEF and implemented with ZSUBEB and other stakeholders, identified 453,602 records across the state’s 14 local government areas during the 2024-2025 period.

According to him, 95.3 per cent of the identified children reside in rural communities.

He added that 21,283 children, representing 4.7 per cent, were located in local government headquarters classified as urban areas.

The figures, he said, underscored the need for stronger community-based intervention to reach children living outside the major towns.

“This figure demonstrates the importance of the partnership between ZSUBEB, UBEC, UNICEF, LGEAs, communities and other education stakeholders,” Anka said.

He said the state’s priority was now to ensure that the identification exercise translated into actual school enrolment.

“Our task now is clear, we must move from identification to enrolment, from enrolment to retention, and from retention to meaningful learning,” he said.

Anka said the mobilisation campaign would involve traditional rulers, religious leaders, community leaders and organisations across Zamfara State.

He stressed that the participation of community stakeholders would be critical to reaching children in rural areas and ensuring that those enrolled remained in school.

The campaign is expected to build on the mapping exercise by mobilising families and communities to return out-of-school children to classrooms across the state.