Out-school-children: Sultan and other Northern Traditional Leaders Demand Unified and Immediate Action
Traditional and Religious Leaders of Northern extraction are currently engaged in active deliberations on the out-of-school children challenge with a view to adopting proactive measures that will end the scourge.
The high level meeting is held under the auspices of the Sultana Foundation for Peace and Development with Federal Ministry of Education (FME), Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), National Commission for Mass Literacy (NMEC), with support from UK’s Department for International Development (DFID).
The UNICEF Country Representative, Nigeria, represented by the Deputy Country Representative, (UNICEF), Ms Pernille Ironside, expressed concern over the slow progress in achieving EFA and recently the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UNICEF Country Representative hinted that 69% of the out-of-school population in Nigeria are in the Northern States with Bauchi leading the pack with 1.1 million children out of school. Citing gender issues as one of the critical issues the representative noted that more than half of girls are not in school in the Northern region. She challenged participants at the meeting to consider investments in our children as the right investment in our collective future. She expressed UNICEF’s readiness to build and sustain strong partnerships with the traditional institution in this regard. The UNICEF official noted that if traditional leaders take the right steps it will lead to real change, ensuring that every Nigerian child is in school and learning in order to reach their potentials and the full potential of Nigeria.
His eminence, the sultan of Sokoto, who chaired the opening session, in his remarks emphasized that the out-of-school syndrome runs contrary to the social norms and values of the Northern region. He reminded the distinguished participants that successive generations of Northern traditional leaders had laid a strong culture and foundation for the thriving of Education and sustenance of intellectual legacies. Northern Traditional leaders, he said, have always been at the forefront of the development of Nigeria’s educational development. He stressed that the region must act together and act decisively now to end the challenge. He called for a change of attitude and behaviours. He called on parents and other stakeholders to understand the fact that the blessings of God , in this instance, come with a huge responsibility, and that everyone must act decisively towards providing children with quality education.
The Sultan further expressed concern over the country’s low investment in education observing that recent trends indicate that educational investments have fallen far below expectation and cannot take the country to the level she ought to be. He noted that the 2-day meeting will avail participants the opportunity to reiterate the desire and commitment to work with notable local and international partners towards addressing the challenge of Out-of-school children. He expressed readiness and noted that the traditional rulers will gladly implement decisions taken at the 2-day meeting, together with the political leaders. He further affirmed that at the end of the meeting the traditional rulers will sign a document commuting themselves to implementing the decisions taken. On this note, he expressed optimism that the 2-day event will be a turning point for Nigeria’s out of school children challenge.
Prof. Salihu Shehu, Dean, School of Continuing Education, Bayero University, Kano, who delivered the keynote address harped on the need for attitudinal change and the accordance of priority attention to education as the basis for any significant approach to addressing the challenge of out-of-school children. Nonetheless, he opined that children attending almajirai schools should not be regarded as being out of school and suggested the promotion of an inclusive education that leads to the improvement of the almajirai system, including basic (western) literacy and numeracy into its operations. He further emphasized the need for effective community sensitization and mobilization as key to ahieveing expects results in the push for eradicating the out-of-school menace.
The minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, represented by UBEC Executive Secretary, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi reiterated Federal Government’s commitment to delivering quality education and pro king interventions that will guarantee that the out-of-school Challenge is addressed. He informed participants at the event that $611m credit facility has been secured by Government to support states with the highest number of Out-of-school children, under the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA). The minister further announced that N71,292,316,087.84, being outstanding unaccessed FGN/UBE matching grant funds by states as at August 2018 have been deducted at source from the amount accruing to states under the Paris Club refunds. He confirmed that in the coming weeks, UBEC shall be disbursing N142,584,632,175.68 to support educational development in the States. He urged prudent utilization of the funds in order to achieve stated purposes.
The 2-day event currently holding in Kaduna is being attended by prominent traditional rulers in the North, representatives of State Governors, heads of religious organisations including His Eminence John Cardinal Onaiyekan, education stakeholders, International Development Partners, among others. The meeting was declared open by the Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, represented by Prof. Kabir Mato, Kaduna State Commissioner for Local Government Affairs. The meeting has a line up of key activities including, paper presentations, plenary discussions and presentations on real life experiences by children that were previously out-of-school.
