Dilemma of Nigeria’s out-of-school children

11-year old Adeleke Ola, has an ambition to become a medical doctor. This ambition may just end up as mere imagination for the young boy who migrated to Lagos from Osun state in pursuit of another kind of ambition which has been fashioned for him by his family.

He arrived Lagos in 2012 from Ila in Osun state, after being withdrawn from a Primary School, where he had already attained primary four. This was due to the death of his father who was the breadwinner of the family who died when he was 10 years old. Following the father's passage, it became obvious that the burden of catering for Ola's needs were too much for his mother to bear. This was in addition to his other siblings.

In Lagos, Ola was sent to a home to serve as a houseboy so that his mother could face the challenge of raising the other children and for Ola to probably make some money to help the family out with some pressing needs.

Narrating the circumstances that brought him to Lagos to Daily Independent, Ola said, "Since our father died, my mother has not been able to send all of us to school. So she asked me to come and do houseboy job here in Lagos so that these people would take care of me, send me to school and send something to her at Ila."

In what could be described as a twist of fate for him, Ola said, "When I got here I thought I would start school immediately but till now I have not started school and I do not know when I would start."

Ola is, however, still hopeful as he said, "My Oga said I will soon start school."

He has also tried to hold on to his life-time dream of becoming a doctor, as he said, "I want to become a doctor when I grow up. That is my dream and that is what I always tell myself."

Ola seems to be aware that this ambition may be hanging loosely in the air.

"Now I am not in school. How can I become what I want to become when I do not go to school?" he lamented.

Ola represents the true story over 10 million Nigerian children who have been cut out of school, despite their desire to get education as a means of actualizing their dreams of better life.

A UNESCO in Education for all Global Monitoring Report (EAGMR) released in June disclosed that 10.5 Million Nigerian Children are out of school. This means Nigeria alone accounts for 47 percent of the world's out-of-school children. This is also as the country, and four others have been listed as those with the highest cases of out-of-school children since 1999.

The report further noted that only one in every four children that are enrolled in schools would stay in school, a statistics that has not changed since year 2000. It pointed out that; "About 137 million children began primary school in 2011 but at least 34 million are likely to drop out before reaching the last grade".

The challenge of getting children into schools is compounded by the fact that aid to basic education in Nigeria has decreased for the first time in over 10 years.

Various stakeholders who spoke with Daily Independent said the high level of poverty in the country and the low premium placed on education by parents are responsible for the current situation.

They noted that if the trend will be eradicated or reduced to its barest minimal, there must be free education for all children, more schools and public enlightenment on the importance of education, employment of qualified teachers that are adequately motivated and also provision of proper school equipment.

A retired principal in Anambra state, Sir Martins Ezeuehu remarked that what is responsible is that parents don't pay much attention to the education of these children, but being more interested in their going outside to be hawkers on the street, fetching them little money every day.

"Once you have exposed these children to money making in the early stage of their lives, it will be very hard to pull them back to school again. An adage says; "open the doors of school to your children, you close the door of prison to them," he added.

Ezeuehu however said the National Orientation Agency (NOA) should continue to enlighten parents on the advantages of early training of these children in terms of education.

Equally, the Chairman of the Lagos state Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Gbolahan Daodu said the issue has raised serious concern to experts in the education sector adding that to her the main reason for the obvious lapse is the selfish interest of the parents as well as the economic situation of the country as most parents and guardians feel that they can only get means of livelihood through these children by asking them to sell.

"The main reason why we still have pupils or some of these children that are out of school if you ask me, is that most of the time some of them are for selfish reasons but also, some of them are economic; economic in the sense that some parents or guardians feel that they don't have a means of livelihood, that they can derive livelihood through these children by asking them to sell wares or things for them,"

She said the children can still do that after school hours given that education is free and compulsory in the first nine years hence no parent or guardian should prevent these children from going to school.

Daodu further stated that the Ministry of Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation (WAPA) in the state is doing something in that respect and that the state government has passed the child right law.

She noted however that enforcement is still the major problem, adding that that it should be the duty of the law enforcement agency to ensure compliance.

In his view, a motivation speaker and Principal Consultant of JK Micheals, Dr. Omololu Bello observed that there are lot of things involved, including poverty perspective, adding that some parents do not have the wherewithal to send their children to school and that some of them do not even appreciate education.

He also stated that government has its own part to play to ensure that there is a kind of education the children can go through. Parents he also stated, have their own role to play.

He however said there is need to improve the awareness about education, provide quality education and ensure that education is not expensive and that there is need to improve the financial status of the parents.

"I am sure if they have the money, they will send their children to school. Government should also make sure that there are quality books, quality materials, pay the teachers well. All these are involved. Once they look at all these things from different directions, you see a situation where most children will go to school and they will come out better," he added.

Also speaking with Daily Independent, Lagos state Commissioner for Education, Olayinka Oladunjoye said a lot of factors are responsible ranging from the parents' lack of motivation and poverty.

She recalled that at a meeting by state Commissioners for Education met with the Minister of Education this issue was raised and it was noted that the trend was not peculiar to any particular state or region.

She however stated that Lagos state does not have large number of out-of-school children, stressing that the state is working on the issue.

Chairman of Alimosho School Based Management Committee (SBMC) Pastor Oluwole Osoba said the policy of government is that children of school age are enrolled into school adding that, that is why the Lagos state government is providing free textbooks in five core subjects to all the pupils and children in public schools to encourage enrolment in schools.

"Unfortunately, for one reason or the other some children are still out of school in the community. Many of them are from outside Lagos; they brought them here to serve as house-helps or to engage in selling wares on the street of Lagos", he said.

He added that some of the school aged children are also used as conductors because they are attracted by the money they get each day while some are seen in big markets helping people to carry goods.

Osoba noted that as community they meet through the Community Development Association (CDA) to discuss issues like these and also sensitise parents and the guardians on the importance of education and that these children can still hawk for them in the evening after school hours if they so wish.

He also advised the government to help some of the poor parents possibly through the cooperative societies by giving them soft loans to boost their trade adding that government must create jobs so that these children when they are through with their studies can get a job to do.

"Government should also try to make sure that our graduates are gainfully employed because a lot of parents also think that after their children go through the secondary, university or polytechnics education and come out without any job to do they are not encouraged", he said.

Meanwhile the Federal Government has stated that it will continue to intensify efforts at increasing the enrolment rate of children across the country to improve the living standard of the people.

Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, who stated this in Abuja during an interactive session with 40 Civil Society groups from various states, said all intervention programme being implemented are aimed at addressing the 10.5 million out-of-school children challenge.

He explained that the Federal Government started with the Almajiri education programme because the Almajiri children constitute over nine million of the number.

He said the Federal Government would continue to engage Civil Society groups on development efforts in the basic education sector to get their support for the overall growth of the country.

Source: Daily Independent