The Nation Newspaper

Tag: out-of-school

  • Foundation celebrates out-of-school children

    Out-of-School-Children Empowerment Foundation (OSCEF), a non-governmental organsation (NGO),  marked the 2016 Children’s Day putting a smile on the faces of children and  honouring individuals and corporate organisations for their contributions to the society.

    Founder OSCEF, Mr Akeem Kelani, said the body supports government to get out-of-school children back in school. He is optimistic that achieving this will reduce crime in the society.

    “If these children are back in school, the level of poverty, crime, and terrorist attacks will reduce drastically. This is because if you are knowledgeable you will find it difficult to join bad company.”

    He said OSCEF through community effort and field work, has been able to rescue over 2,000 street children and dropouts back to school in Oshodi, Mushin, Agege, Alimosho, Kosofe and other areas, and monitor them effectively.

    Kelani said OSCEF achieved this  through sensitisation programmes and advocacy visits to communities  to educate them about the dangers  of not sending their wards to school.

    He however listed inadequate funding, inadequate school learning materials for the children as part of  challenges the foundation faces.

    Awards were given to second republic governor, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Governor of Kano State, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, Lagos State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Mrs Lola Akande, former Chairman, Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) , Mrs Gbolahan Daodu, and Founder, Little Saint Orphanage, Mrs Dele George.

    Thanking the organisation on behalf of the awardees, Mrs Daodu said “What makes it special is the fact that we are concerned about the plight of our children, even those that are already going to school not to talk of thousands of them that are out of school.

    This should be the concern of every individual because the children is our future.”

  • Jigawa decries high rate of out-of-school children

    THE Jigawa State Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Rabi Ishak has announced plans to raise the standard of education in the state to international standard under the present administration.

    The commissioner in an exclusive interview with The Nation expressed worried over speedy increases of children out of school in the state and northern parts of the country.

    Hajiya Rabi Ishak explained that “the situation is alarming and there is need for proactive measures by the federal and the effected states government”, adding that “despite the policies of so many subsidy in education by governments, even free education by some states yet there is still children out of school, it is even increasing”.

    According to her “according to UNICEF over 10.5 million children dropped out of schools in the country as of August this year and the sittuation is worsen in the north western states”.

    She expressed the urgent need for the Federal Government to redefine Almajiri modern education system esterblished by the immediate fast administration to made some changes that would made parents and local Malams to accepts its fully.

    The commissioer said there is resistance by the parents and local malams on the progromme due total sideline the local Malams whom were more belives and trust by the parent and even the child by the government on the system, this and other things need to be address before success of the project.

    Hajiya Rabi Ishaq has restated her commitment to improve educational sector in the state to meet international standard, adding that the new administration in the state inherited a lot of problems particularly in educational sector which need urgent attention to be address.

    According to her some of the problems include inadequate teachers, inadequate classrooms,lacks of learning materials with student overcrowd in the class as well as larger number of children who are out of the school.

     

  • Nigeria tops nations with out-of-school kids

    A new report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has placed Nigeria top on countries with children missing out of school.

    The global figure for the number of children without access to schools has fallen to 57 million.

    These figures are for 2011 and show a reduction from an estimated 61 million missing school in 2010.

    According to UNESCO, the countries with most children missing out of school are: Nigeria, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Indian, Philippines, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Niger, Yemen and Mali.

    The report also states that more than half of the children missing out on school are now in sub-Saharan Africa. The last annual report showed that in some countries, including Nigeria, the problem is getting worse rather than better.

  • 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.

  • Creating access for Southern out-of-school children

    Creating access for Southern out-of-school children

    Earlier in the year, President Goodluck Jonathan commissioned the first almajiri model primary school constructed by the Federal Government in Sokoto. Since then, the Government through the Ministry of Education and her agencies, built about 100 of such schools in different parts of the country.

    Several of these schools have been fully completed and are being furnished. Some are nearing completion, with the supervising Minister, Barr. Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, the nation’s Minister of State for Education working round the clock to ensure that the contractors deliver before the close of the year and in line with approved contractual specifications.

    With efforts to address the challenges posed by the almjiri out-of-school children now in top gear, the Federal Government is now conscientiously working on the implementation of a novel educational programme targeted at the out-of-school children in South-East and South-South.

    Like the almajiri programme, the out-of-school educational programme is a well thought out plan to ensure the trader boy-child in the South-East and the children of the South-South fishermen and other less privileged persons are not denied access to quality education because of their social and economic backgrounds.

    Furthermore, the Federal Government is committed to ensuring that Nigerians from all geo-political zones of the Federation benefit from programmes and policies aimed at improving the quality of education nationwide. Having built a structure in the north with over eight million children out of the 10million out of school children in the country in the process of receiving needed education, it was only important to tackle the remaining less than two million children in the south.

    The programme is being handled by the Minister of State for Education, Ezenwo Nyesom Wike who is coordinating the efforts of Federal Government agencies and their counterparts at the state level to ensure that the directive of President Goodluck Jonathan is dutifully implemented.

    It is imperative to point out that before the Federal Government commenced the implementation of this programme, it involved the major stakeholders at the State Level. These stakeholders are expected to take a cue from the Federal Government and ensure that there is a trickling down effect of the programme in the interest of the larger majority of less privileged Nigerians in the South-East and South-South.

    Under the programme, the Federal Government is building special basic education schools laced with vocational and technical components in all the eleven States of Southeast and Southsouth. The State Governments are to provide land for the schools, while the Federal Government through its interventionist agency, the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, will fund the construction of these schools.

    Already, relevant curriculum is being worked out by the Nigerian Educational Research Development Council, NERDC, in conjunction with the Highbury College, United Kingdom for the schools. The curriculum will be ready before the physical structures of the schools are in place. Experts from both institutions are working round to clock to ensure that the curriculum that will be developed will be a realistic approach towards impacting into the less privileged children basic education, vocational and technical skills.

    The input of states and other stakeholders are being harnessed in the process of developing this functional curriculum. This is important because upon completion, the Federal Government will hand over the schools to the states for administration. The Federal Government will also supply books and other relevant instructional materials to all the children that will attend these schools, the way the almajiris in the north are being catered for.

    The essence of the interventions to accommodate less privileged children in educational programmes by the Jonathan administration is simply to underscore the point that no tier of government in the country can look the other way while our children roam the streets.

    For Nigeria, the overall objective is Education for All. This is what every officer in the administration under the direction of President Jonathan is working hard to achieve.

    •Nwakaudu is Special Assistant (Media) to the Minister of State for Education.