Children of school age in Nigeria are not in school?

The unsettling 10.5 million children of school age in Nigeria are not in school.  Such figure tugs at the heart of a major problem in the education sector.  The number is unprecedented, given that no other nation in the

world has such staggering figure of their children out of school.

Recent visit of the former Prime Minister of Britain, Mr. Gordon Brown, who is United Nations Special

Envoy on Global Education, brought the appalling situation to the fore. Whether the children belong to beggars in Kano street, Ebute Meta, Lagos or Almajiri kids in many towns in Northern Nigeria or street hawkers in several other places around the country, such situations detract heavily from whatever gains made in the education sector over the years.

The Education Summit held last Monday in Abuja,  where President Goodluck  Jonathan, the UN envoy, governors and all education commissioners in the 36 states provided a stock taking opportunity for a nation that does rank high in most of the  indices, measuring highly educated zones of the world. To also lag behind in such rudiments as basic education at primary and early secondary school levels is to compound an already pitiable condition. Statistics reeled out by the former Prime Minister showed that rather than decline, illiteracy has been on the upward spiral in the land. As if the huge number of children, doing other things other than being in school was not enough, Brown said 52 per cent of young women, who complete primary school education, still remain illiterate.

President Goodluck Jonathan was alarmed enough to order a census of primary schools in the country, as a first step at getting to the root of the problem and hopefully solving it. But Brown threw more light on the issue when he said Nigeria had a shortfall of 1.3 million teachers, worsened by existing ones whose training has been stagnant, even as they have no access to technology.

There are few classrooms for existing pupils typified by schools that take 50 or more percent of their capacity. A statement from Brown’s office on the situation put it thus:

“Those that do find ways to get their children into school, there is doubt as to the effectiveness of the courses.  Approximately 52 percent of young women who complete primary education remain illiterate. Indeed, the high level of illiteracy is now an economic problem as well as a social disaster, with the number of adults who cannot read or write up to 35 million. Illiteracy is standing between Nigeria and its deserved success as an economic powerhouse of the world.”

Religious beliefs and teaching that tend to abhor western education have kept sizable number of young people out of school, which is why moral suasion ought to take a pride of place in the tools to be applied in tackling the problem.

Every stakeholder admits that funding plays a key role in reversing the shortfall. Government response to this, though late, is heart warming. The former British prime minister has got international agencies to put 250 million pounds on the table, just as the Nigerian government and the business community, which has Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote at the helm, would also rally counterpart funding of a like sum. In practice, therefore, 500 million pounds would be deployed in attempts to halt the decline by 2015. International partners, who have opted to support this noble cause include leaders of USAID from Qatar’s Educate a Child, the Global Partnership for Education, from business community represented by Global Business Coalition for Education, along with global development partners.

The fund is targeted at giving fresh impetus to the education sector by erecting more classrooms, recruiting and training more teachers in modern ways of educating people, provision of innovative teaching via tablets and phones, design of new curriculum to strengthen the development of literacy and numerical skills.

Figures from the United Nations show attendance ratio among primary school pupils, although enrolment stood at 79 percent.  Huge gaps demarcate the  literacy rate between girls and boys. About 61.2 percent of boys above 14 can read and write, but only 50.2 percent of the girls can, going by 2010 figures. The difference may have come closer but nothing significant has happened, thus denoting a clear need for more attention to be paid to the girl child.

Narrating the role being played by Nigeria’s National Youth Advocate for universal education and the Millennium Development Goals, Ojonwa Deborah Miachi, a BSc holder in Economics from Bingham University in Kau, Abuja, and Malala Yousafzai, the 16-year-old Pakistani girl shot by the Taliban, Brown noted that their zeal for the education of the girl child particularly, was an inspiration for the summit he came for in Abuja.

It is pertinent to advocate that the zeal be given a fillip in the action plan from the summit drawn up for implementation.  Fund raised for this purpose should not be deployed for other purposes, no matter how pressing the demand and temptation might be. Education is bedrock for development and enlightenment, which is why any negligence in the sector does incalculable damage to the nation.

We must pull all the stops and, indeed, leave no stone unturned in ensuring that children who ought to be in school are nowhere else. Education holds the key for a progressive populace. Although the bulk of funds come from donor agencies, the sincerity of purpose at implementation would make or mar the project. The country ought to bury its head in shame over the unenviable record of the highest out-of-school children in the world. This shameful figure must be reversed.