Osun Dismisses Report On 297,000 Out-Of-School Children

The Osun State Government has dismissed a report published by a national daily purporting that the state has the highest number of out-of-school children in the South-West, describing it as misleading.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Adekilekun Jimoh, in a statement on Saturday, said the report wrongly claimed Osun had 297,000 out-of-school children.

Jimoh also said the report attributed the figure to a recently concluded media dialogue organised by the ministry in collaboration with UNICEF and held in Ede.

Jimoh said that at no point during the event was 297,000 presented as the number of out-of-school children in Osun State.

“We wish to clarify that at no point during the recently concluded media dialogue organised by the Osun State Ministry of Education in collaboration with UNICEF was the figure of 297,000 presented as the number of out-of-school children in Osun State.

“The figure presented during the programme was that approximately 97,000 learners have enrolled on the Nigeria Learning Passport (NLP) and Passport to Earn (P2E) platforms in Osun State. These figures relate to programme enrolment and participation, not to the population of out-of-school children.

“It is therefore surprising to see reports suggesting that the figure of 297,000 represents the number of out-of-school children in Osun State or that Osun has the highest number of out-of-school children in the South-West. Such a claim is malicious, damaging, and rejected in its totality, because neither such figure was presented nor attributed to the presentations during the programme,” the Permanent Secretary said.

Olamilekan Adigun

Olamilekan Adigun is a graduate of Mass Communication with years of experience in journalism embedded in uncovering human interest stories. He also prioritises accuracy and factual reportage of issues.

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