By  Lola Omowaye & Bukola Olamona
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Having access to quality education have been a major challenge in most African countries. Nigeria in particular, places high importance on education and every government that comes into power tries to do its best at improving the sector. However, lack of enough funds to effectively finance education has not made these efforts rewarding, as the country is faced with challenges of dealing with Out of School Children (OOSC) annually.

It is in the public record that Nigeria has the highest number of children out of school in the world, especially in the Northern part of the country. To avert this, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) recently resolved that the Federal and State Governments should allocate fifteen percent of their budgets to education. This were part of efforts to tackle the issue of financing education and maybe this would assist to reduce the rate of out of school pupils among others.

Many people have attributed  factors  responsible for out of school or dripping out of pupils and students to the economic situation of the country,  high cost of tuition particularly among the private schools,  un-seriousness of the students,  desire to make quick money, and low percentage of the budget allocated to education by the government at all levels.

Children out of school refers to the number of primary school age children not enrolled in primary or secondary school. Most of whom are used for child labour while some are forced into thuggery, robbery, kidnapping and prostitution. The parents and the society is at the receiving end because they bear the effects of these vices.

Parents have admonished the government and other relevant stakeholders to discuss issues of education and propose achievable education policies that could herald significant development in the sector and give children the access to quality education at an affordable rate.

According to a parent, Mrs Ifeoluwa Emmanuel: ‘ No matter how poor a parent is, there is no excuse not to give his or her children education. Thank God for public schools, although they also collect little  but it affords everyone the opportunity to give their children education. In order to do this,  parents must work. I once read on the pages of a newspaper about a boy who  washes  the windscreens of cars. When interviewed why he was doing that,  he said his sister was  down with typhoid at home,  their father was  not taking care of them,  so he had to drop out of school to do some jobs to assist his mother in taking care of them and their sick sister. Poverty is another factor responsible for the increase in out of school pupils in our society.

‘If things continue this way, the society will suffer the consequences. There will be robbery, people will not be able to sleep with their two eyes closed. There will be increase in thuggery, they will join secret cults because they are looking for money. We are experiencing kidnapping everywhere now, they are doing it not to kill but to get money. They will tell the families of the victims to pay high ransom. This matter will not only affect their immediate family but everyone. ‘

In another parent’s view, Mr Emmanuel Akintola said: “Part of the problem of out of school pupils is traceable to the society. Also it starts with the parents and they will place the fault again on the society. It is not the wish of any parents to let them  embark on what I call the rat race, either by fending for themselves or dropping out of school. The plan of any parent is to train the child to be responsible and be educated, yet the economy on the other hand may not be  favourable on the part of the parents. The finance capabilities of parents will determine to which extent a child will be educated.

‘It is unfortunate that the society is taking the format it is now which has not been helpful to the parents. It is just unfortunate. The society will feel the effects of this imbalances.

‘The children that are not trained are prone to evil vices. They become wayward and velnurable to social vices. The boys among them could be wooed into committing crimes and the girls to prostitution. Children that are educated will think twice before getting involved in crimes.’

Mr Ebenezer Adeniran, a parent opined that:’ The government contributed to this problem with their attitude towards education. The attitude of government is poor. Many graduates do not have jobs after their parents have invested a lot in their education. Parents who want to take their children to school now are being discouraged because those that have graduated have nothing to show for it.

“The attitude of some teachers also contribute to this because they believe they will get paid whether the children get what they are learning or not. The economic situation generally is making the matter worse. I remember my parents did not spend more than fifty thousand naira for my university education  but now a pupil in the primary school is spending about thirty thousand naira for just one term.

‘Major consequences of children not schooling are kidnapping, cyber crime,  and rituals among others. They want to make money at all cost. The ladies are going into prostitution. The government should have done all what is needed to be done to address  this but since this is now happening, there are consequences.  The nation will suffer it, the family name will be soiled, the environment will not be peaceful and things will not go on as expected. We are already going through this, we pray God will restore everything to normal.

Suggesting way out of this, Adeniran said it is for government to work at stabilising the economy. So that people will be able to afford to send their children to school. “Even if all of them will not get jobs or be educated, at least the situation will improve and the society will be at rest.’

Stressing the importance of good teachers to reducing drop out of students,  Mr Husten Aladeyenu emphasised that :’ Lack of financial capability of the parents. At times some of them are interested in learning one trade or another. Sometimes the attitude of some teachers may lead to the voluntary withdrawal of some students. The type of environment a child grows up can contribute to this”.

‘This group   of children will become nuisance to their families and the society because their parents will not be able to control them. The rate of out of school pupils can be reduced if government organises awareness programmes about the importance of education and reduce the fees of education. The parents also needed to emphasize  to their children why  they need to go to school.’

Speaking on Ondo State Government intervention on this issue,  the Special Adviser to the Governor on Public and Intergovernmental Relations, Mrs Olubunmi Ademosu  said : “We have done feasibility study on this and we have had three stakeholders meetings on issues relating to out of school pupils . We are trying to set up two structures in strategic locations,  one for out of school children, which will be like children’s home and the other one,  will be like an empowerment school, where they will learnt one trade or another, and be engaged.

‘We are looking at what to do for the normanic people at the Northern Senatorial District of the state. While considering to do this, we are trying to be careful due to the herdsmen/ falani crisis, so that we will not be creating a settlement for them that will disturb the government. We are brainstorming on how to go about that one. We are also considering the fishermen’s children.  We want to ensure that these children’s education (OOSC) are taken care of and that they do not become hoolligance in the society’, she said.

The Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Education, Rev Akin Asaniyan said:’ So many factors contribute to children being out of school. The major ones are economic factor and social value for education.

According to him, ‘ people do not believe in education again, so they think it’s better they expose their children early enough to business than to make them pass through school and getting no job at the end. If someone does not have access to fund for business, how will such person sends his or her children to school? The major factor is economy, the economy is bad. Some might be thinking that those who went to school, what becomes of them? The schools are there, the structures are there, the government is doing its own part to renovate the schools.

‘The consequences are already in the society, people are taking into kidnapping, killing, robbery,  insurgency, raping, and going into classified drugs. Look at the Northern part of the country, there is problem, the southern area too, problems here and there’.

He urged the media to help sensitize the public, both print and the broadcast media on the need for parents to give their wards quality education as much as they can afford.

While urging parents to give their children quality education, Asaniyan said: ‘To parents, they should have hope in education. They should know that the first thing education does is to liberate them from perpetual ignorance and captivity. Education gives the enablement to succeed in a competitive world”, he asserted.

The federal, state governments and all stakeholders have been called upon to appreciate the magnitude of the challenge of the OOSC and possibly develop effective strategies for significant reduction of such children in our society.