‘132million Children Lack Access To Education’

Chief Executive Officer of the African Human Development Centre (AHDC), Professor Gabriel Umoh, has said that about 132million children of primary and secondary school age lack access to education globally.
downloadHe stated this while presenting a paper titled, “The teacher: Quantity, Quality, the Child and National Development” at the 2013 Global Campaign for Education in Etinan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.
According to him, 127million people between the ages of 15 and 24 cannot read and write.
He stated that the situation is worse in Nigeria, “where there is a ratio of 1 teacher to 101 children. The country ranks among the worst in teacher\students ratio, performing poorly among other developing countries including Liberia, Morocco, Kenya and Liberia”.
He said the group has entered into a partnership with an international agency-Action Aid Nigeria, to address some problems bedevilling the system.
Umoh said the problem could be tackled if Nigeria implements vital national policies and programmes.
Such policies according to him include, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Education for All, the Vision 20: 2020, the transformation agenda, the UBE Act 2004, among others. Also speaking, permanent secretary, State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Mrs Theresa Ekon, blamed the poor standard of education on teachers and tasked them to do more to change the trend.