In a bid to tackle the alarming rate of out-of-school children in Gombe State, the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), in collaboration with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), on Monday, convened a one-day stakeholders engagement meeting for the 2025 Enrolment Drive Campaign.

According to UNICEF and World Bank data, Nigeria has a staggering 13.5 million out-of-school children, with 787,619 from Gombe State alone.

In his address, the Chairman, SUBEB, Gombe State, Mr. Babaji Babadidi, explained that the event aimed to sensitise stakeholders and the general public on the importance of collaboration in creating an enabling environment that would accelerate the return of out-of-school children to school.

He added that the meeting would explore how to ensure that children are enrolled at the appropriate time and date.

“Each Local Government Area (LGA) has been given a target to enrol no fewer than 10,000 pupils for the 2025/2026 academic year, making a total of 110,000 pupils across the state”, he stated.

The strategy he opined would reduce the number of out-of-school children by 50 percent by 2030.

The state Commissioner for Education, Professor Aishatu Maigari, proposed increasing the target to 20,000 pupils per LGA, bringing the new total to 220,000 pupils.

The lead facilitator at the event from the UNICEF Bauchi Field Office, Mohammed Kudi, emphasised the importance of creating awareness and informing stakeholders about their roles and responsibilities in returning out-of-school children to the classrooms, retaining them, and ensuring they complete their education.

He added that nationally, over 80.3 percent of children are out of school in Nigeria, pointing out that in Gombe State, the initial figure was 500,000, but it has now risen to 737,000, representing 13 percent of the state’s population, “which is alarming”.

Our correspondent reports that the meeting was attended by traditional leaders, religious leaders, educators, and policymakers in the state.