Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State has announced the enrolment of 1.5 million out-of-school children into primary and secondary schools across the state.

He disclosed that this initiative has reduced the number of out-of-school children in the state by 700,000, representing a 70 per cent decrease. Zulum made the announcement yesterday in Maiduguri during the inauguration of Government Secondary School, Mairi, alongside the World Bank Country Director in Nigeria, Dr Ndiame Diop. He said the state government had made significant investments in the education sector over the past five years, including rebuilding schools destroyed by the Boko Haram insurgency.

The governor revealed that 104 schools and 2,931 classrooms had been reconstructed, with millions of instructional materials distributed to basic and secondary schools across the state.

“We’ve distributed free educational materials, including 22 million text and exercise books, 15 million sets of uniforms, 700,000 school bags, and about a million other learning tools,” Zulum stated. He added that a school feeding programme had benefited over 50,000 pupils annually.

To address the challenges of student mobility in rural areas, the state government distributed 10,000 bicycles, Zulum added. The governor expressed gratitude to the World Bank for its support in implementing development projects, particularly the Multi-Sectoral Crisis Recovery Project (MCRP) and three other World Bank-funded initiatives.

Dr Ndiame Diop commended the state government’s commitment to rebuilding the education sector. He noted that the World Bank had supported the construction of 41 secondary schools and the rehabilitation of 392 others in Borno.