TheCable

President Bola Tinubu has approved funds for the training and empowerment of adolescent girls in the country, says Tahir Mamman, the minister of education.

NAN reports that Mamman said this on Monday while addressing state house correspondents on the outcome of the federal executive council (FEC) meeting which held at the presidential villa in Abuja.

He said the empowerment programme is meant to train girls and teachers and also provide for additional schools in the country.

“Two things I want to mention and comment on, which are very important parts of the deliberations and resolutions in the council today,” the minister said.

“One is additional funding for the training and empowerment of adolescent girls in Nigeria.

“One of the major policies of government is to target the education, training and empowerment of young girls into society.

“Initially from seven participating states, we will now have about 11 additional states participating in this project, which will lead to the empowerment of girls between 10 and 20, right across the participating states.”

A 2022 UNESCO report showed that Nigeria now has at least 20 million out-of-school children.

It stated that about 10.5 million of the country’s children aged between 5 and 14 years are not in school.

UNESCO said only 61 percent of children between 6 and 11 regularly attend primary school while only 35.6 percent of children aged 36-59 months receive early childhood education.

The report added that gender is a factor states in the north-east and north-west have been grappling with, with female primary net attendance rates of 47.7 percent and 47.3 percent respectively.

Mamman said Tinubu’s administration is working to reduce the number of out-of-school children in the country.

“Today, the council took a very major decision to review policy so that the public procurement Act is brought into practice,” he said.

He said this would enable the public procurement council to exercise its powers under the Act, allowing for greater focus on issues of national importance and policy.