The
Boko Haram insurgency has had one major impact on Nigerian children –
the near decimation of the education system in the North-East thereby
worsening the phenomenon of out-of-school children. But even before the
rise of Boko Haram, Nigeria has always had the unenviable position as
the country with the highest rate of children out of school in the
world. The Boko Haram insurgency has only made the problem worse. Many
schools have closed down out of fear of being attacked – indeed, many
schools have been attacked with children killed, maimed – even abducted
as in the case of the over 200 girls taken from their school in Chibok
in April 2014.
Looking at the figures quoted in the 2012
UNICEF Report on out-of-school children in Nigeria (produced as part of
the global strategy to have all children in school by 2015), one cannot
but be despondent. With an estimated 10 million children out of school,
these are not figures one would expect to see in a country like Nigeria
with abundant resources and a succession of governments that should
really be concerned about this matter and therefore, keen to address it.
But
so far, there has been very little political will to address the issue
of out-of-school children in the country. In particular, this UNICEF
report highlights the depressing North and South divide in education
provision in Nigeria. The proportion of children not in school in the
North, even making allowances for Boko Haram disturbances, is extremely
alarming. For example, Kebbi State has 633,498 children of school age
but 69 per cent or 437,963 are not in school. Zamfara State has 633,545
school age children – but 482,739 or 76 per cent are out of school. In
fact, as of 2012 when the report was compiled, Zamfara State had the
highest number of children out of school in the whole of Nigeria.
But
this phenomenon is not limited to the North, even if the situation is a
lot worse there. Down South in Oyo State, 20 per cent of the children
do not go to school – that is 185,544 children – the highest in the
South. States like Anambra and Imo in the South-East and Ogun and Lagos
in the South-West have relatively low rates of out-of-school children.
Ekiti State has the lowest number of children out of school in the
country. However, on aggregate, the North-East has the highest rate of
children out of school and the South-West, the lowest rate of
out-of-school children.
We know there are many factors that
contribute to this phenomenon. The issue of early marriage in the North
is one which needs to be tackled head-on, with bold and aggressive
policy implementation and legislation if we are to see any drop in the
number of girls out of school in that part of the country. So far,
successive governments have been very weak and docile in addressing this
issue by pandering to religious bigots; yet, we are only delaying the
inevitable. It is irrational for any government to be comfortable with
the anomaly of early marriage especially one that prides itself as the
largest economy in Africa.
Much has been written about the
Almajiri syndrome, the link with child poverty and the opportunity
provided terrorist groups like Boko Haram to recruit its mass number of
fighters from this mass of street children. It has to be said that the
government of Goodluck Jonathan attempted to tackle this issue by
setting up a number of special Almajiri schools. However, in my view,
what was required was a multi-thronged approach to take on the Almajiri
phenomenon head-on.
There are many recommendations in the UNICEF
report for the government to implement in order to address the issue of
out-of-school children. However, as far as I know, very little has so
far been done – meaning the global effort to have all children in school
by this year, 2015, remains very much a mirage in Nigeria. This is a
sad reality, because even without the global initiative, Nigeria should
be capable of pushing for a strong education sector in which all its
children would have an opportunity to grow and develop, build their
knowledge and skills.
This is one of the reasons I am fascinated
by the ongoing Elementary School Feeding Programme in Osun State. Of
course, this is a revamped programme based on a Federal Government pilot
project but kudos must be given to the government of Osun for not only
continuing the programme, but for ensuring thousands of children
continue to benefit. The government claims that it feeds over 245,000
children each day in all its elementary schools. It says that it has
achieved a 25 per cent increase in school enrolment as a result. While
of course there has not been an independent programme evaluation done to
assess its true impact, it is certain that the project would have had
some benefits which can be reassessed and replicated in other states.
The
incoming government of Muhammadu Buhari must prioritise education and
aim to reverse the number of out-of-school children by the end of its
four years in power. It must do so by revisiting some of the
recommendations in the UNICEF report, and work hard at raising enrolment
level by introducing a phased-in version of the school feeding
programme, prioritising states with the most need. In addition,
rebuilding the education infrastructure in the North-East destroyed by
Boko Haram should be a priority. With an estimated 10 million children
out of school in the country, it is high time something concrete was
done to address this scar on the conscience of every well-meaning
Nigerian and save future generations from perdition.
- Ms
Ariyo, OBE, is Chief Executive of AFRUCA UK, an organisation promoting
the rights and welfare of African children (www.afruca.org), and a
postgraduate student at the London School of Economics and Political
Science.
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