From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
It was the former South African President, Nelson Mandela, who described education as the most powerful weapon that could be used to change the world. For that to happen, deliberate strategies and approaches must be put in place with strong political, economic and fiscal will by the government.
Unfortunately, in recent times, Nigeria has not been so lucky to have political representatives that can use the abundant human and natural resources the country is blessed with to make education a great weapon to change the country, let alone the world.
Due to decades of failed leadership in this regard, millions of Nigerian children have not been in formal or informal classrooms in such a way that they can read and write even their names.
In 2022, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) cited that the total of out-of-school children (OSC) in the country was more than 20 million while the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) put the figure slightly above 10 million.
There is no confusion in these figures from UNESCO and UBEC. While UNESCO data was premised on children between six and 18 years (primary one to senior secondary school three), UBEC’s figure was limited to children between six to 11 years.
The fact remains that a lot of Nigerian children are not in school and that has been of great concern to many within and outside the country, especially in Northern Nigeria where the majority of the out-of-school children are found due to cultural beliefs and economic status of their caregivers.
In Kaduna State, the immediate past governor, Nasir El-Rufai, tried to address the age-long practice of street begging and hawking with a law banning these and at the same time making basic education compulsory. He went further to repatriate a lot of children in these categories to their states of origin.
According to Kaduna State annual school census, Kaduna saw an increase in enrolment of school-age children from about one million to 2.1 million within El-Rufai’s eight-year administration. However, several children in semi-urban and rural settings are still not in school.
Luckily, the United Kingdom through Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) is implementing a four-year Partnership For Learning for All in Nigeria (PLANE) project being implemented by Save the Children International (SCI) in Jigawa, Kano and Kaduna states.
In Kaduna State, the project is targeting Kauru and Soba local government areas based on the number of out-of-school children and the economic status of their caregivers with the year one targeting children age six and 13 in six Kauru communities which would serve as centres for other adjoining communities within their respective catchment areas.
Unlike a classroom setting, the learning would be taking place in venues provided by each of the major centres which may include open fields, under umbrella trees among others – with the provision of teaching and learning materials to support 1,140 out-of-school children in Kauru local government area of the state.
Education project coordinator, SCI, Ayuba Usman, said the development became necessary to ensure children that have been out of school for more than two years are given another chance through community-based learning.
According to Ayuba, 72 facilitators were recruited for the catch-up club and another 36 were recruited for literacy and numeracy boost.
“Later on after they may have caught up, they will then be mainstreamed into formal school. The catch-up section is going to take place for 16 weeks where they will acquire all the fundamentals for literacy and numeracy,” he said.
The teaching and learning materials distributed include plastic chairs, mats, whiteboard, blackboard, dustless chalks, cardboard paper, scissors, crayons, exercise books for learners, pencils and facilitator’s guide among others.
The six centres where the learning will be taking place are located in Marabaki, Kware, Kitimi, Kaibi, Kusheka and Bandi Majidadi communities.
On mechanisms put in place to ensure the items are used for the purpose they were provided, he said: “We are working closely with the state and local governments, SUBEB, Director State Agency for Mass Literacy and our community structures including community leaders.
“These are the structure that will monitor and validate the process. On the PLANE part, we have a monitoring team who will embark on constant monitoring, coaching of facilitators to ensure that the materials are used judiciously and impact the right knowledge on these children.”
Lending his voice to this learning approach, Assistant Director, Social Mobilisation, Kaduna State Universal Basic Education Board, Musa Ibrahim Aboki, expressed confidence that the development would help the state in reducing its burden of out-of-school children.
Aboki noted that SUBEB as an agency saddled with the responsibility of managing basic education delivery in the state is at home with FCDO and SCI’s intervention in this regard.
“As such, any school-age child irrespective of his or her social status has the right to education. So, this community-based learning is a plan by this development partner to augment what the government is doing.
“It informs that out-of-school children are being mobilised, enrolled, and be given foundational skills on literacy and numeracy so they will be qualified to be mainstreamed into the basic education system”, he said.
Speaking on behalf of the Kaduna State Agency for Mass Literacy, Hajiya Nafisatu Bello noted that the programme is in tandem with her agency’s area of responsibility.
“This is related to what we do. This is our programme as we are supposed to eradicate illiteracy within the shortest possible time. We are very happy with the organisation that brought this programme to us. They are helping us because these are some of the communities government hands may not reach.
“So, they are helping us to bridge that gap with this very rich programme. So many donour organisations have come to us. But we don’t see quick action like that of SCI.
“This is a rare opportunity where quality teaching and learning materials have been provided. We want to urge the facilitators to use these materials for the sole purpose they were provided,” she said.
Meanwhile, a traditional leader, Mukada of Kauru, Muhammed Adamu, assured stakeholders that traditional leaders at different levels have agreed to serve as watchdogs to ensure the teaching takes place as planned and materials are judiciously used.
“We are working with district and ward heads who are overseers in these communities. They will be alert to ensure these materials are used solely for the education of our children.
“We thank SCI for working on the talk. This is a good development on how to address the issue of our children who are not in school,” he said.
One of the facilitators, Abisheg Dauda Amani, from the Kware community said they were ready for the task ahead in the next 16 weeks, saying: “We have received the materials for us to teach the benefitting children.
“We have been trained on how to go about it. We are ready to do it as long as it will take so we can be a part of the change we have been clamouring for at least here in Kauru”.
