CIAN Unveils Plan To Return 13.2 Million Nigerian Children To School

The Citizen Intervention and Accountability Network (CIAN) has unveiled plans to track and return the over 13.2 million out-of-school children across the 36 states of the federation back to the classrooms.

The intervention programme would focus on girls who are either never enrolled in school or withdrawn early from school for early marriage, domestic chores, or hawking (petty trade) on behalf of their mother, among other reasons.

It will also target boys and Almajiri children who are pre-adolescent to early-teen learners that attend residential Islamic religious schools common throughout Northern Nigeria,

Children of nomadic pastoralists whose itinerant lifestyle makes it difficult for them to participate in regular formal education would also be captured in the intervention.

The plan also covers Almajiri children, caused by perennial conflict in the North-East, North-West and some parts of North-Central.

The CIAN group decried the rising number of out of school children, adding that the issue is affecting the economy negatively.

Speaking on the intervention programme, the representative of French Embassy and Assistant Director of CIAN, Benoit Billy explained that more work needed to be done to improve the out of school challenge.

He said, “This issue of out of school children affects everybody, every concerned country in the world especially here in Nigeria.

“I encourage the CIAN to work on this, work on many institutions with the Nigerian government. Let’s hope that more and more children will come back to school and be in a good environment to learn with the material adaptive classes trained teachers.

“So, if we can help with support, advice, and structure, CIAN will be delighted to do it.”

Also, the project and planning director CIAN, Samson Abraham said CIAN has identified some of the reasons for the increase in low school enrolment rate.

He said, “CIAN wants to carry out a field operation, where we will identify these children from state to state, enumerate them and profile them, their parents and by doing that, we are going to build a lot of strategy, of which has been documented already.

“Before we go to any field, we will do publication in that state, we will employ a volunteer from that state, and we will also do what is called a local giving, that even a woman selling fish or farmer will be able to understand what CIAN wants to do.

“By so doing, they should be able to encourage their children that are out of school because this is a growing phenomenon in Nigeria.

“The issue of insecurity with Boko Haram, Bandits we are facing today is going to be more if this problem is not addressed. That is why CIAN want to partner with the government actors, state actors, and policy community to make sure that these children that are out of school has to stop.”

On how the project will be financed, he said the organization will partner with United Nation, Embassies and some government agency that are willing to take these children back to school.