Nigeria’s out-of-school children situation is disheartening
By Abdullahi Adamu
The description recently by Senator Comrade Adams Oshimole, again at his best, advocating for good funding and monitoring of Universal Basic Education of the ever-rising number of out-of-school children across Nigeria as a “time bomb” is a repetitive sound bite. The reality of a large population of uneducated Nigerian youths has been a talking point for decades and is still rising. It is a pointed reflection of the incompetence, neglect and utter lack of vision of successive federal and state governments.
Talk is cheap; Senator Adam urged the state governments and the elite, including FCT, to take the necessary extraordinary measures immediately to defuse the deadly incendiary situation they created.
UNICEF adds that one in three children in Nigeria is out of school, totalling 10.2 million at the primary level and 8.1 million at the junior secondary school level. It said one in every five out-of-school children in the world is in Nigeria. These statistics are depressing; state governors can no longer afford to nurture another generation of illiterates.
The worst and increasingly incorrigible offenders are the Northern states and the region’s elite. Over 60 per cent of the total is in the North.
Out-of-school children are a social and serious security problem for us. I want to say that there are more than 20 million out-of-school children because the 20 million we are talking about are possibly only in basic education, that is, primary school and junior secondary school; what about those who have finished junior school and are unable to go back to Senior Secondary School?
“We must be talking about 30 million out of school. That is a vast population and is a major issue. This is one issue that the state and federal government must take seriously,” Senator Lawan said.
Education is the key to Nigeria’s development. Oshiomhole stressed that Nigeria appears to be failing in its national plan for growth due to the lack of basic education. “It is not right for us to boast of an ultra-modern government house and have the most dilapidated schools and even employ teachers not to pay them.”
We have angry and hungry people in the classroom; they can’t be nice to our children, and when they show no kindness to those children, those children grow up without care, without feeling, and believing that society is uncaring.
This is a call to the government to embark on a comprehensive and radical educational curriculum review across Nigeria and prioritise skills rather than old-fashioned theories and colonial educational system expansion to help human economic growth, skills acquisition, and small-scale industry expansion.
The government must take a close look at what is happening to our children in Nigeria and the opportunities they are missing out on because they lack education.
We need to look towards communities—leaders, parents, teachers, and caregivers—and together, find the best strategies to ensure that all children enroll in school, have access to continuous learning, and emerge with quality skills that equip them for a prosperous future. The situation has even worsened since then, up to 2023.
The government also need to ensure that children are safe when they are in school – no child should be afraid to enter a classroom – afraid their school might be attacked or that they will be kidnapped. And no parent should fear sending their children to school.”
In 2021 alone, there were 25 terrorist attacks on schools. A total of 1,440 children were abducted, while 16 children were killed. In March 2021, about 618 schools were shut down in Sokoto, Zamfara, Kano, Katsina, Niger and Yobe states over the fear of attack and abduction of pupils and members of staff.
Nigeria’s education system can be transformed through adequate funding.
Abdullahi Adamu wrote via nasabooyoyo@gmail.com.
