FG raises alarm over ‘invisible dropouts’ in Nigerian schools

By Joseph Erunke, Abuja
The Federal Government has raised the alarm over a growing form of “invisible dropout” in Nigerian schools, warning that many girls may be abandoning education emotionally and academically long before they are officially recorded as having left school.
The Minister of State for Education, Prof. Suwaiba Ahmad, said on Monday that simply seeing a child inside a classroom could no longer be regarded as proof that she was receiving an education.
According to her, bullying, abuse, ridicule, exclusion and unsafe school environments could gradually drive girls out of learning even while they continued to report to school every day.
Ahmad, who spoke in Abuja at the...