President Bola Tinubu has directed the Federal Ministry of Education to work out modalities to return the over 20 million out-of-school children back to classes.

To this end, the ministry is leveraging on the DOTS-data repository, out-of-school children education, teacher training and development, skills development and acquisition project to achieve the objective.

Minister of state for education, Dr. Yusuf Tanko Sununu, disclosed this while performing the symbolic ground-breaking ceremony of the National Examinations Council (NECO) offices for all the zones of the country in Shabu, Lafia, yesterday.

He said the DOTS initiative would enable the federal government have a data-driven mechanism for interventions on fundamental issues relating to out-of-school children and other matters.

According to him, the project will avail the ministry opportunity to have statistics of schools, enrollment, retention and progression and rates from kindergarten to university level.

“Out-of-school children represent a major thematic area in the eight points agenda of President Bola Tinubu with priority focus on social welfare, health and education.

“Mr. President is of the belief that the over 20 million out-of-school children we have now represent a group of Nigerians that we have to pay attention to, otherwise miscreants can use them to cause and foment trouble.

“The president also believes that for Nigeria to develop and continue to take its rightful position in the comity of nations, those group of over 20 million citizens must be returned back to school, and ensure that they get proper education and the necessary skills to make them self-efficient and relevant in the society,” he said.

The minister who described the out-of-school issue as a time bomb waiting to explode, noted that for the country to move forward the 20 million affected children must be returned to schools.

He also explained that the DOTS project would enable the federal government to come up with adequate census of teachers, their qualifications, training support received, emoluments amongst others for effective planning.

The minister commended Governor Abdullahi Sule and his colleagues for their continuous support to the educational sector and supporting NECO through the enrollment of their students in examinations