The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Out-of-school children

  • World Bank’s $500m loan targets out-of-school children

    Nigeria’s effort to address  the problem of out-of-school children has been boosted by World Bank’s plan to offer a $500 million loan.

    An official of the bank and a Senior Education Specialist, Dr Olatunde Adekola, made this known in Sokoto.

    Leading a five-man team to state Governor Aminu Tambuwal, Adekola explained that the loan would be given under its “Better Education For All (BEDA)” project.

    According to the bank official, the project would focus on the north, especially in boosting girl-child education.

    “The project would be result-oriented, ensure that children are able to read and write, as well as strengthen government service delivery systems at all levels.

    “This is to help the government to strengthen its service delivery mechanisms to children, girls, women and other vulnerable groups.

    “Most of the challenges in the country are education-related and the five-year project is aimed at reversing the ugly trend,” he said.

    Adekola praised Tambuwal’s administration for pursuing meaningful projects to move the education sector forward.

    The bank official also praised the allocation of about 27 per cent of the state’s budget to education in 2016 and 2017.

    He said: “The state government also deserves a pat on the back for ensuring the prompt payment of teachers’ salaries.

    “We have also noted unlimited appetite by parents in the state for the education of their children.”

    Tambuwal promised to sustain the  partnership between the bank and the state, assuring that the government would ensure effective and efficient utilisation of the funds.

    “We will continue to honour our own side of commitments to such agreements in terms of finances and other issues.  We have begun the process of creating an agency to be in charge of the education of the girl-child,” he added.

     

  • Infographics: Out of school children in Nigeria

    Infographics: Out of school children in Nigeria


    The above representation attempts to compare the population of Out of School Children (OSC) in Nigeria to the entire population of some African nations.
    According to statistics provided by UNESCO, there are about 10.5 million Nigerian children that are out of school.
    This is the largest population of such OSC anywhere on earth, in fact, Nigeria accounts for 47 percent of the world’s population of OSC.
    In comparison, the entire population of Libya and Liberia is 10,496,000 while the population of OSC in Nigeria is approximately 10,500,000.
    According to the UNICEF, over the last decade, Nigeria’s exponential growth in population has put immense pressure on the country’s resources and on already overstretched public services and infrastructure. With children under 15 years of age accounting for about 45 per cent of the country’s population, the burden on education and other sectors has become overwhelming.

    Out of School“Forty per cent of Nigerian children aged 6-11 do not attend any primary school with the Northern region recording the lowest school attendance rate in the country, particularly for girls. Despite a significant increase in net enrollment rates in recent years, it is estimated that about 4.7 million children of primary school age are still not in school.

    “Increased enrollment rates have also created challenges in ensuring quality education and satisfactory learning achievement as resources are spread more thinly across a growing number of students. It is not rare to see cases of 100 pupils per teacher or students sitting under trees outside the school building because of the lack of classrooms.

    “This situation is being addressed by current efforts of the Nigerian Government with the implementation of the Basic Education scheme. The compulsory, free Universal Basic Education (UBE) Act was passed into law in 2004 and represents the Government’s strategy to fight illiteracy and extend basic education opportunities to all children in the country.

  • Excerpt: Education can defeat violence – Obaji

    Excerpt: Education can defeat violence – Obaji

    • Philip Obaji Jr. is the founder of the 1 GAME Campaigns to advocate basic primary education for the over 10.5 million out-of-school children in Nigeria. In this interview with David Lawal, Obaji, who is also a Global Youth Ambassador, speaks on the abducted Chibok girls and the duty of government in providing education for all among other issues.

    Kindly give a brief insight into your background?

    I was born on August 8, 1985 in a town called Ogoja in Northern Cross River State. I am the founder of the 1 GAME Campaign, which promotes basic primary education for vulnerable kids in Nigeria. I am widely known for my activism for rights to education for Children, especially in Northeastern Nigeria. I’m a graduate of Marine Biology from the University of Calabar; a Global Youth Ambassador for United Nations critical education partner, A World at School; a member of International Network for Education in Emergencies; and a champion of Global Partnership for Education. Back home, I am an Executive Committee member of the Cross River State Football Association. I am soft spoken, a Roman Catholic and a man of peace. I believe in Nigeria and in every citizen of this country. And I want to play a role in making it a better place for all of us.

    How long have you been into education advocacy? 

    I’ve been working for close to 5 years now in education advocacy. It all started in 2010 when 1 GAME Campaign was founded.

    What informed your decision to start education advocacy? 

    In 2009, I traveled to Ogoja where I was born. I had not visited the town since my family moved in 1988 when I was just three years old. I wanted to learn more about the place I first lived as a child.

    I have had numerous conversations with my father about Ogoja, and he would often speak about its people, and how he missed them and their culture. Once arriving in Ogoja after a six-hour journey from Calabar, where I live, I was greeted by a group of young boys and girls at the bus stop, who rushed to me, begging for money. The children were between six and fourteen years. When I asked them where they came from, they confessed that they were ‘Almajiris’ from Northern Nigeria.

    They had followed a lorry transporting goods from Maiduguri in Borno State to Ogoja. They said they jumped into the lorry without knowing the driver, and had no idea of where the vehicle was heading. I was overwhelmed by the presence of so many out-of-school children and could not stop thinking about their plight and how to solve this crisis.

    Thereafter I founded 1 GAME Campaign aiming specifically at Almajiris helping them to enroll and complete their basic education. The name ‘1 GAME’ means that anyone involved in the campaign, is asked to defeat violence, illiteracy and poverty – using education as a tool.

    Philip Obaji in CalabarWhat is your disposition to the target on children across the world?

    There is absolutely no justification for the target on children. Terrorists all over the world target children in order to strike fear and gain publicity. Boko Haram for instance gained global acclaim after the Chibok abductions. They got exactly what they were looking for. There are lots of similarities between Boko Haram which operates here in Nigeria, and the Taliban which operates in Pakistan.

    While they both want to enforce full Sharia Law all over Nigeria and Pakistan respectively, they also want to ensure that there is no place for western education in the areas they operate. But let’s not also forget that beyond these things, there is a political undertone to its existence.

    About a year since the abduction of school girls from Chibok, what are the chances of seeing the return of these girls?

    Honestly, no one is sure about the where about or well-being of the Chibok girls except their captors. They’ve been lots of rumors about them. In fact as we speak, there’s a video circulating round Maiduguri purportedly showing Boko Haram militants raping young girls and shooting those who refused to get laid.

    Many people who have seen this video say the girls in the footage are the abducted Chibok girls, but I haven’t been able to get anyone to confirm if that’s true. I can’t really say for sure if the Chibok girls are alive or death or if they are safe where there are. Since there hasn’t been a word for some months from Boko Haram about the girls, no one can be sure about their wellbeing, and whether or not they’ll return.

    Considering the present state of education in Nigeria, where do you think we got it wrong?

    It started from the attitude of government, and the trend is still continuing. The problem with Nigeria’s education has to do with poor planning, poor funding, and in some quarters, corruption. Take primary education for instance, the Universal Basic Education Scheme was designed
    to provide compulsory, free education up to Junior Secondary levels, to be funded by both the Federal and State Governments. The Federal Government keeps 2 percent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund into the scheme and allocates money to the states when the states contribute its matching amounts. However, we’ve found out that most of the states never made their matching grants, denying themselves access to the funds; and in states, where they had been given the grants the education sector there is still pathetic. That tells you that these governments are not making education their priority.

    The population of out-of-school children in Nigeria according to UNESCO is equal to the total population of the entire Czech Republic (10.5 million), who do you think is responsible for this?

    The government has the biggest role to play in ensuring Education for All. In 2000, at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, 180 countries including Nigeria signed up to make the six goals of Education For All happen, committing to putting legal frameworks, policies and finance in place so that everyone, no matter what their circumstances, could have an education – one that is available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable.

    The richest countries pledged to help make Education for All a reality by committing to principles of international cooperation towards those countries with fewer financial resources. Commitment towards the right to education was also reflected in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, set in 2000 with a deadline for achievement by 2015. Out of the eight Millennium Development Goals two focus on education. Both the EFA and MDG goals are all centered on what governments should do, and not what parents or children should do to create access to education.

    But as much as government has a huge role to play, we as citizens must encourage and drive our children to education. Teachers must inspire. Principals must lead. Parents must instill a thirst for learning. And students have got to do the work in school. And if we can all do this together, I assure you we will build great ideas and push this nation away from the stronghold of extremists.

    What’s your advice to government on providing education for all?

    Government must show more seriousness in achieving the goals of Education for All. Education is achievable if government mobilizes the political will and available resources. Government must recognize that education is a universal human right; that it is the key to poverty alleviation and sustainable human development; and of course, education is its core responsibility. In doing so, it must ensure increased provision of quality early childhood education and care; the eradication of adult illiteracy and a second chance to learn for youth and adults who miss out on formal schooling; an end to child labour; democratic participation of, and accountability to, civil society, including teachers and their unions, in education decision making at all levels; fair and regular salaries for teachers; properly equipped classrooms and a supply of quality textbooks;
    inclusive and non-discriminatory provision of services for all; the mobilization of political will and new resources in support of National Education plans to realize the EFA Goals, including adequate public expenditure of at least 6 per cent of GNP. Without this in place, it would be difficult to achieve Education for All.

     

  • 57 million children were out of school in 2011-UNESCO

    57 million children were out of school in 2011-UNESCO

    New figures from the UN Scientific, Educational and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) have shown that the number of children out of school dipped slightly last year over 2011.

    UNESCO said in a statement issued on Monday that 57 million children were out of school in 2011, down just two million from the previous year.

    It said the challenge of getting more children into school was being compounded by the fact that aid to basic education decreased for the first time in more than a decade.

    The statement quoted UNESCO’s Director-General Irina Bokova as saying “we are at a critical juncture, now is not the time for aid donors to back out.’’

    She said the world must move beyond simply helping children enter school to ensuring that they actually learn the basics literacy and numeracy skills when they are there.

    Bokova also said at least one out of every four children that do enrol stay in school, noting that “the figure has not changed since 2000.’’

    According to her, of some 137 million children who began primary school in 2011, at least 34 million are likely to drop out before reaching the last grade.

    “The figure drops to one out of three students in Sub-Saharan Africa, South and West Asia, which have the highest rate of early school dropout.

    “Our twin challenge is to get every child in school by understanding and acting on the multiple causes of exclusion and to ensure they learn with qualified teachers in healthy and safe environments.”

    According to UNESCO’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report, aid to basic education declined by six per cent between 2010 and 2011.

    The report said six of the top education donors that year cut funding, among them Canada, the Netherlands and the World Bank (IDA), leaving the UK as the largest bilateral donor to basic education.

    In addition, the report called on donors to prioritise countries and regions most in need.

    UNESCO said that only 1.9 billion dollars was allocated to low income countries in 2011, a reduction of nine per cent and significantly short of the 26 billion dollars needed to fill the finance gap for basic education.

    The agency also said that countries in sub-Saharan Africa account for more than half of all out-of-school children and have the highest out-of-school rate.

    “Aid to Nigeria, for example, the country that is home to the largest number of out of school children in the world, dropped by more than a quarter from 2010 to 2011,’’ it said.

    It disclosed that more than 20 per cent of African children have never attended primary school or have left school without completing primary education.

    “By contrast, countries in South and West Asia, which also have high drop-out rates, have made considerable gains over the past two decades, reducing the number of out-of-school children by two-thirds from 38 million in 1999 to 12 million in 2011.

    “Children in poor, remote areas, those affected by conflict, or those belonging to ethnic, racial and linguistic minorities are denied an opportunity for schooling,” UNESCO said.

    In addition, children from poor households are three times as likely to be out of school as children from rich households.

    Access to education is particularly difficult for girls from poor households in rural areas.

    The release of the figures comes ahead of Tuesday’s June 11’s high-level discussions at the UN headquarters in New York in support of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Global Education First Initiative and UN Special Envoy for Education, Mr Gordon Brown,s drive to put every child in school, improve the quality of learning and foster global citizenship by the end of 2015.

    In 2000, governments held a meeting in Dakar, Senegal, to set six education goals to be met by 2015.

    One of these, Universal Primary Education, was also set as one of the eight anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which are to be achieved by the same date.

    To accelerate progress towards universal education, the UN chief, in September, launched his Global Education First Initiative and which the UNESCO hosts it’s Secretariat.