The National Association of Proprietors Private Schools (NAPPS) has promised to give scholarship to 1,200,000 pupils in three years to reduce the number of out-of-school children across the country.
NAPPS President Yomi Otubela announced this on Monday during a virtual meeting to mark the association’s Day 2020.
Otubela said the 40,000 members of the association had agreed to give scholarship to 10 indigent pupils each year to support the Federal Government’s efforts at addressing the high number of out-of-school children in Nigeria.
There are 13.2 million out-of-school children in Nigeria, the highest in the world.
Otubela said: “NAPPS has decided and communicated our strong decision to partner with the Federal Ministry of Education in proffering solution. Therefore, it is the unanimous decision of the national executives of NAPPS that each of about 40,000 proprietors in NAPPS shall oblige to award scholarships to a target of 10 indigent children per year for consecutive three years.
“It should be noted that our member-schools, before now, had been devoted to giving different forms of scholarships to indigent pupils, but we want to do more.
“With this, the association is poised to remove a minimum of about 400,000 children from the streets each year. Within the period, our target is to reduce the rate by four per cent per annum as an addition to government efforts.
“With this arrangement, NAPPS assures that private schools will be willing to lend its support to the Federal Government in reducing the number of out of school children in the country.”