By Philips Osunsami
The United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has stated its readiness to partner with Southwest states to curb out-of-school children challenge.
UNICEF Education Specialists , Mrs. Azuka Menkiti and Mr. Babagana Aminu, who spoke at a two-day regional stakeholders’ meeting on Out-of-School Children for Ekiti, Lagos, Ondo, Osun ,Ogun and Oyo States, which held in Ibadan, stressed the need for states to adopt the retention, transition, and completion models.
The agency, at the seminar held in collaboration with the Oyo State Ministry of Education, said efforts must be geared towards creating sustainable solutions to ensure that every child has the opportunity to receive education.
Aminu, in his presentation, said retention of school children had been one of the major challenges in the zone.
He said: “In terms of being out of school in the Southwest, almost on average, putting all six states together according to the multiple cluster indicator survey that was conducted by NBS, it shows that about 8 percent of children are out of school.
“But that is not the most worrisome data, if I must say, concerning the southwest, most of the worrisome data has to do with retention, that is, retaining those children that must have enrolled in school, but not only retaining them; are they completing the level of education that they have enrolled in?
“What I mean is that the completion of primary school children when they are in junior secondary school and, as well, when they transit to senior secondary school, how well are they transiting? Lots of children that enter primary school may not have the opportunity to complete junior secondary school, and that means the future for them is still blurry. So where are these children? That means if they are not in school, they are out of school.
Another UNICEF Education Specialist, Mrs. Menkiti, advocated for more funding to be allocated to secondary schools, emphasising that it will equip them with the necessary skills to succeed in life.
She said: “This comes from about 10 years of intervention we have done on girls’ education that has shown successful, tested, and skill-able interventions that have been able to help us bring girls to school and keep them in school.
“What the two-day meeting is doing is supporting states to begin to look at issues that are drivers of dropouts for adolescents in their states. When we talk about the bigger picture of out-of-school children, we are looking at them from different perspectives: those who have never enrolled in school, those who are likely not to enrol in school, and those who have dropped out of school. So we are interested in this meeting for those who are at risk of dropping out and at risk of not actually completing secondary education.”
In his welcome address during the stakeholders meeting held in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, which had in attendance Commissioners for Education, Chairman of State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), religious leaders, and top civil servants, the Commissioner for Education in Oyo State, Prof. Salihu Abdulwaheed, described as embarrassing the issue of out-of-school, stressing the need to be dealt with holistically.
Abdulwaheed disclosed that the issue of out-of-school children in the state was mainly non-indigene and assured that the data would improve ahead of the next academic session.
With the Commissioner for Education in Ekiti, Dr. Olabimpe Aderiye, stressing that every state and region has peculiarities as regards the out-of-school children menace, the Commissioner for Education, Science, and Technology in Ogun State, Prof. Abayomi Arigbabu, said his state government was already addressing issues and all factors that were indirectly affecting children.
On his part, the Ondo State Commissioner for Education, Science, and Technology, Mr. Laolu Akindolire, also said all factors causing children to drop out of school had already been addressed in the state.