Adebayo promises free basic education, vows to end out-of-school crisis

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential candidate, Prince Adewole Adebayo, has pledged to reduce the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria to zero, promising sweeping reforms in basic education if elected.

Adebayo made the commitment through a policy statement issued on Thursday by Comrade Mark Adebayo, his Chief Media and Communications Adviser, as the Adebayo-Bugaje Presidential Campaign declared an education emergency over the country’s persistent school attendance crisis.

The campaign cited an estimated 18.3 million out-of-school children in Nigeria, comprising approximately 10.2 million primary school-age children and 8.1 million of junior secondary school age.

It said the North-West and North-East geopolitical zones account for about 66 per cent of the affected children, attributing the crisis to insecurity, poverty, inadequate educational infrastructure and other barriers to school attendance.

The campaign also highlighted the impact on girls, citing primary school attendance rates of 47.7 per cent in the North-East and 47.3 per cent in the North-West. It said conflict and insecurity had further disrupted education, leaving hundreds of schools closed and thousands of classrooms damaged or destroyed.

“We cannot build a modern economy, achieve national security, or proudly step into the comity of nations when millions of our citizens are structurally condemned to illiteracy from childhood,” Adebayo said.

He criticised successive administrations for failing to adequately address the problem, arguing that access to basic education must be treated as a fundamental right rather than a political promise.

Under the proposed four-year transformation plan, the SDP candidate said his administration would prioritise public education funding, redirect public resources towards essential services and provide free, safe and heavily subsidised basic schooling.

Adebayo also pledged to strengthen the enforcement of compulsory basic education laws in collaboration with state and local governments. The proposed measures include community-based tracking systems to identify children who are not attending school and support their return to classrooms.

On security, he promised a dedicated framework to protect schools in high-risk areas and rebuild classrooms destroyed by conflict, saying that the plan is intended to help children in violence-affected communities resume their education in safer environments.

“The proposed reforms would also extend to traditional education systems, with the campaign promising to work with local communities to incorporate literacy, numeracy and vocational training into existing structures,” he said.

According to him, the approach would help children who are outside the formal school system acquire foundational skills and improve their opportunities to participate in the wider economy.

Adebayo said the scale of the crisis demanded urgent intervention, arguing that prolonged exclusion from education threatened Nigeria’s economic development, social stability and future workforce.