Philosophical Analysis of the Right to Education in the Context of Out-of-School Children in Kebbi State

This study provides a philosophical analysis of the right to education and applies it to the crisis of out-of-school children in Kebbi State, located in Nigeria's North West geopolitical zone. Kebbi State has one of the highest rates of out-of-school children in Nigeria, generating urgent philosophical questions about the nature of the right to education, the obligations of the state to fulfil it, and the moral consequences of its systematic violation. Using a descriptive philosophical design, the study engages with the philosophy of rights through the work of Alan Gewirth on the normative basis of human rights, Matha Nussbaum's capabilities approach, and Islamic educational philosophy, supplemented by secondary literature published between 2019 and 2024. Structured interviews with 20 education policy officers, community leaders, and philosophy academics in Birnin Kebbi and Argungu inform the primary data. Findings reveal that the right to education in Kebbi State is violated not merely through passive neglect but through active policy choices about resource allocation, security provision, and community engagement that constitute identifiable moral failures attributable to specific institutional actors. The study argues that the capabilities approach provides the most contextually sensitive philosophical framework for operationalising the right to education in Northern Nigeria. Keywords: right to education, capabilities approach, Kebbi State, out-of-school children, philosophy of rights.