Education stakeholders have identified Oyo State as having the highest number of out-of-school children in South-West Nigeria, citing an estimate of 674,324 children and calling for stronger measures to improve access to education.
The figure was presented by the Programme Director of Educare Trust, Folorunsho Moshood, during a stakeholders’ engagement in Ibadan organised by Educare Trust and the Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All. According to a March 2026 report by THISDAY, Moshood said the estimate represented 20.1 per cent of children aged three to 17 in the state.
He identified poverty, distance to schools and additional schooling costs as barriers, urging stronger policy implementation and support for vulnerable families.
The stakeholders also raised concerns about inadequate classrooms, toilets and water facilities, alongside uneven teacher deployment in rural communities. They argued that expanding enrolment must be accompanied by improvements in learning conditions.
The concerns come alongside the state government’s account of progress in returning children to school.
In February 2026, Governor Seyi Makinde announced that about 65,000 out-of-school children had been reintegrated into classrooms through education interventions.
Makinde spoke while receiving a delegation from the World Bank and the Universal Basic Education Commission at the Secretariat in Agodi, Ibadan. The delegation was assessing the Better Education Service Delivery for Additional Financing programme, known as BESDA-AF.
The governor said the state had benefited from the programme and pledged continued support for its implementation. He also invited feedback from the visiting team on areas requiring improvement.
While acknowledging government interventions, the education groups called for funding to produce measurable improvements in classrooms and for sustained engagement with communities to prevent children from dropping out.
The estimated out-of-school population and the government’s reported reintegration figure come from separate accounts. They do not establish an updated total of children currently outside school.
