UNICEF and Save the Children International address Kaduna's out-of-school children crisis

This commitment was made at the Data Dissemination Event for the 2026 Out-of-School Children Mapping and the 2025/2026 Annual School Census reports under the Reaching Out-of-School Children ROOSC project in Kaduna. Duncan Harvey, Country Director of Save the Children International in Nigeria, highlighted the mapping exercise as a significant achievement, providing comprehensive data on the location, age, gender, and disability status of 187,719 out-of-school children across Kaduna's 23 local government areas. He noted that 60.2 percent of these children had never enrolled, while 39.8 percent had dropped out.

Major factors contributing to the crisis include poverty, teacher shortages, inadequate facilities, insecurity, disability-related barriers, child labor, and harmful social norms. Harvey urged the Kaduna State Government to translate these findings into actionable, costed implementation plans and called on donors, communities, and media to sustain their support. UNICEF Chief of Field Office, Dr. Gerida Birukila, praised the digitized Annual School Census as a milestone for education planning and policy, emphasizing UNICEF's dedication to ensuring access to quality education for all children, especially those with disabil