Governments are being pushed to allocate 10% of their education budget to address the out-of-school issue

West African governments have been recommended to invest in Accelerated Education Programs (AEPs) in order to address the rising number of out-of-school children in the subregion. This allocation should account for at least seven to ten percent of basic education budgets.

The AEPs are adaptable, age-appropriate programs designed to help kids who have fallen behind in school for any kind of cause make up lost time. In a press release following a two-day stakeholder engagement on solving the crisis of out-of-school children in West Africa, Dr. Leslie Casely-Hayford, Director of Associates For Change, stated that more money and budgetary allocations were required to address the issue.

Stakeholders from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Mali, and Burkina Faso were present at the event, which was organized by the Associates For Change in collaboration with the Centre for the Study of Economies of Africa, Dalan Development Consultants, and the Complementary Education Agency.

According to Dr. Casely-Hayford, the number of children who are not in school is still rising worldwide, with over 19 million children in Nigeria, 1.2 million in Ghana, 3.5 million in Burkina Faso, and 1.0 million in Mali and Sierra Leone. Of the 244 million children and youth between the ages of six and eighteen who are not in school worldwide, forty percent reside in the West African sub region.

She said the demand and supply barriers to entry and completion of primary education persisted, including poverty, social cultural practices and beliefs along with lack of school infrastructure and trained teachers especially in rural deprived communities.

Dr Casely-Hayford said a proven-cost effective solution for governments in tackling the challenge was to scale up accelerated education programmes, including speed schools and complementary basic education programmes focused on children who had never attended school or dropped out.

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“The Accelerated Education Programme (AEP) model reaches the most deprived and extreme poverty areas, including conflict zones in some countries. Over 90 per cent of AEPs transition into upper primary school after they complete the AEP courses.

“Learning outcomes are achieved in a shorter time frame compared to the formal system. Often, AEP beneficiaries achieved foundation literacy and numeracy within one year, skipping 4-6 years of primary schooling,” she added.

Dr Casely-Hayford, therefore, called for the recognition and integration of AEP into national and educational system through appropriate policies and legislation to ensure its sustainability.

Mr Emmanuel Ntim, Deputy Executive Director of Complementary Education Agency, said the Agency was targeting to reintegrate 10,000 out of school children into schools this year, adding that, they would from 2025 be targeting to reintegrate 20,000 out-of-school children yearly.

He said an area in terms of funding they were considering was advocating that any development partner that signed an MOU or agreement with the Ministry of Education, certain percentage of that funding would be allocated for out of school situation in the country.

“We are also targeting other sources of funding like where we will have one per cent of the basic education budget given to the Ministry of Education to support the out of school situation in the country,” he added.

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