KIU Journal of Social Sciences 177 KIU Journal of Social Sciences Copyright©2019 Kampala International University ISSN: 2413-9580; 5(4): 177-183 Out-Of-School Girls as an Impediment to the Achievement of the UBE Goals in Plateau State MARIA ANPE SAMBO, THERESA STEPHEN GYANG University of Jos, Nigeria Abstract. This paper investigated out-of-school girls as an impediment to the achievement of the UBE goals in Plateau State. The sample consisted of one hundred (100) respondents were used in the study. Three research questions were formulated and answered in the study to facilitate the findings of the research. Descriptive survey research design was adopted in the study and the research instrument used for this study was a questionnaire developed by the researcher. The data collected in the study was analyzed using mean score and simple percentages. From the analysis of data collected, it was discovered that there are many of out-of- school girl-children in Jos North LGA and therefore, the extent of achievement of the UBE goals is still low despite effort by stakeholders to curb the rate of out-of-school girl-children. Therefore, it is concluded in this study that there is need to put more effort towards curbing the rate of out of out-of-school girl-children in Jos North LGA of Plateau State. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that early girl-child marriage should be discouraged in Nigeria and the UBE programme should be made compulsory for very Nigerian child of school age. Introduction The girl-child refers to the female children between the ages of 0-18 years. The girl child is seen as a prospective mother and a home-maker, thus educating her becomes very important because the vital role women play in the family, the society and the nation at large. However, the girl-child has been neglected when it comes to education in some parts of Nigeria. For instance, in Northern Nigeria, many parents are of the belief that educating the girl-child is a waste of resources since she will eventually end up getting married into another family. Other factors that militate against girl-child education include poor economic conditions of parents, broken homes, teenage pregnancy, early marriage and religious beliefs. It is common to find young girls of school age in small towns, streets of major cities in Plateau State including Jos roaming around and hawking pure water, groundnuts and other petty commodities rather than being in school. This phenomenon puts the girl-child at disadvantaged position because she is denied access to basic education which will equip her with knowledge, skills and value to function effectively in the society (Kabiru, 2012). The Education for All Campaign and the Millennium Development Goals focused attention on ensuring that no child is excluded from receiving a primary education. However, despite global efforts to promote universal primary education, there were still 115 million children of primary school age out-of-school in 2013/2014. Globally, 61.6 million girls of primary school age were not in school, accounting for 53% of the total number (UNICEF, 2015). The greatest absolute numbers