“It is important at this point that the government becomes intentional to address poverty and inequity by implementing policies to reduce poverty and address systemic inequitable actions that actually contribute to the high rate of out-of-school children we have in Nigeria. So, basically, we accumulate the facts that the current economic situation will no doubt increase drop-out rates because many parents and students who are not able to afford some costs that come with going to school, transportation cost, and the cost of learning materials, are most likely to drop out of school.
“But we want to believe that having looked at all of this situation, the government should be able to look at how to ensure that there are key actions that they take to address poverty, and inequity that have actually been part of the issues that keep children out of school in Nigeria,” she said. But what is the current figure of out-of-school children in Nigeria? Menkiti stated that “UNICEF does not have any figure to give. But our current analysis, working with data that are available with the government, is that one out of four children in Nigeria is out of school and that a lot of children who are in school are actually at the risk of dropping out.
“So, we might not be able to say the exact figures, but clearly, many Nigerian children are out of school.
“We have been working with the Federal Ministry of Education and Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) to see how we can support the families and support Nigerian children to access leverage.”
Way Forward
Commissioners for Education in Ogun and Oyo State, Prof Abayomi Arigbabu, and Prof Abdulwaheed Adelabu, the two state governments would not relent in their efforts at ensuring that all school-age children are in school in their respective states.
They made advocacy that appropriate quarters should have mechanisms in place to monitor the migration of school-age children from one part of the country to another. This, according to them, would enable regulators to do additions and subtractions. Arigbabu and Adelabu also advised private school owners to always disclose the exact number of children in their schools, noting that some children attending private primary and secondary schools in Nigeria, are being counted as part of out-of-school children.
Meanwhile, state government and local government have also deployed some of their workers to various markets in order to enlighten traders on the need to take their children to school. One of the teams was sighted at Akobo Market, Lagelu Local Government Area of Ibadan in Oyo State.
