Zamfara Identifies 453,602 Out-of-School Children as Government Targets Enrolment
Mirian Gom 
ZAMFARA, Nigeria, Zamfara State has identified 453,602 out-of-school children across its 14 Local Government Education Authorities (LGEAs) as the state launches a 2026 campaign to move children from identification to enrolment and sustained learning.
The campaign was launched on Monday at the JNI Model Primary School in Gusau by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) in collaboration with the Zamfara State Universal Basic Education Board (ZSUBEB), UNICEF and other education stakeholders.
The Executive Chairman of ZSUBEB, Professor Nasiru Anka, said the campaign would focus on turning data on out-of-school children into concrete action.
“The challenge of out-of-school children is not peculiar to Zamfara State. It is a national challenge,” Anka said.
According to Anka, the registration and mapping exercise supported by UNICEF identified 453,602 out-of-school children across the state for the 2024–2025 period.
He said 95.3 per cent of the identified children live in rural communities, while 21,283, representing 4.7 per cent, are located in local government headquarters and other urban areas.
“Our responsibility today is to focus on our children in Zamfara State and, most importantly, to move from statistics to action,” he said.
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