The Federal Government has said the ongoing Smart Schools in some parts of the country will reduce the out-of-school children menace facing the country.

Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr. Hamid Bobboyi stated this on Wednesday after inspecting the UBEC JSS/Vocational School (Government Secondary School), Suleja, Niger State.

Dr. Bobboyi revealed that each senatorial district in the 17 BESDA states will have a smart school, bringing the total to 51.

BESDA is an acronym for Better Education Service Delivery For All – a World Bank initiative which aims at increasing equitable access for out-of-school children and improve literacy in focus states and strengthen accountability for results, in basic education in Nigeria.

The BESDA states are: North East (Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe States); North West (Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara States); North Central (Niger State); South East (Ebonyi State); South South (Rivers) and South West (Oyo).

The Executive Secretary who expressed satisfaction with what he saw at the school, said it was ready for use and it was up to the Niger State Government through the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to decide when to put it to use.

According to him, the unique selling point of the smart school is that its vocational centre would be engaged in repair of phones and electrical appliances.

He said: “It is our hope that with additional infrastructure that UBEC is supplying through the BESDA programme, it will help our various SUBEBs, state governments, to ensure that schools are provided for more pupils to get into school. And also the functionality that is required in terms of a computer laboratory, vocational laboratory.

“This is the BESDA phase that has given resources to ensure that we get more. But there are many in different parts of the country that have earlier been built by UBEC. And we hope to build more where we can provide opportunities not only of the normal teaching and learning but also in making sure that any child who leaves Junior Secondary School has some skills to make a living”.

The Federal Government had disclosed that it would return 15 million out-of-school children back to classroom between 2024 and 2027.