In a Paper presented during the Annual Conference of the Early Childhood Association of Nigeria (ECAN) in Ilorin on Tuesday, 29^th August, 2017, an Educationist, Prof Adekunle Olorundare, called on the Federal Government to urgently check the growing number of out-of-school children in the country.

The Paper was titled “Repositioning Early Childhood Education in Nigeria for Global Competitiveness: A Peek into Global Best Practice.”

The Professor noted that enrolment at Primary Schools has increased in recent years, with a net attendance placed at 70 percent, but Nigeria is reported to have the world’s highest number of out-of-school children, conservatively put at 10.5 million.

Olorundare, who is a lecturer in the Department of Science Education, University of Ilorin, also noted that even though Government policy on early childhood education and care is laudable, its actualisation and implementation was poor. He said that early childhood education should be regarded as part of a child’s rights, and should be available to all children.