UNICEF and Save the Children Address Kaduna Education Crisis

UNICEF and Save the Children International have reaffirmed their commitment to supporting the Kaduna State Government in addressing the out-of-school children crisis. This commitment was made during 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 project.

Duncan Harvey, the Country Director of Save the Children International in Nigeria, described the mapping exercise as a landmark achievement, providing comprehensive data on out-of-school children across Kaduna’s 23 local government areas. The mapping identified 187,719 children currently out of school, with 60.2% having never enrolled and 39.8% having dropped out.

Major barriers to education include poverty, teacher shortages, inadequate facilities, insecurity, and harmful social norms. Save the Children aims to return 100,000 out-of-school children to classrooms, having already enrolled 7,481 learners in accelerated programs and transitioned 13,703 children into formal schools.

Harvey urged the Kaduna State Government to develop costed implementation plans based on the mapping findings.