During the Coronavirus Pandemic, schools across the world were forced to close down spurring them to embrace innovative means of delivering lessons to students. This resulted in an increase in the already alarming number of out-of-school children in Nigeria.

Although insurgency is largely reported as the primary reason for the number of out-of-school children in the Northern part of Nigeria, there are new suggestions that several other factors that are primary contributors to this educational problem. The aim of the study, therefore, is to expose some of the hidden barriers that impede the enrollment and completion of male children in schools in Northern Nigeria.

It also seeks to understand the factors responsible for the receptiveness of ACE Radio School – an alternative form of education introduced in selected states in Northern Nigeria in 2020 in response to the pandemic. For this study, qualitative data was used, employing purposive sampling as a method for selecting the participants.

The responses were collected using a remote data collection tool over a three month period and were subsequently analysed thematically. A total of 35 respondents were sampled and these respondents were adolescent boys in Northern Nigeria, between ages 10 and 18 who were out-of-school and were also listeners of the ACE Radio School lessons.

Findings from this study revealed seven major reasons for the number of out-of-school boys in Northern Nigeria while citing other less prominent, but note-worthy reasons. Also, the experiences the boys had with ACE Radio school affirms that this remote method of teaching, using both the radio and mother tongue, made ACE Radio School a good alternative for delivering high quality educational content to out-of-school boys, and girls alike, in Northern Nigeria.

Read full paper: https://www.ijsrp.org/research-paper-1222/ijsrp-p13214.pdf