Out-of-School-Children: Don tasks FG to implement education policy - ITREALMS

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The Vice Chancellor, Federal University of Transportation, Daura (FUTD), Prof. Umar Adam Katsayal has tasked the Federal Government (FG) to implement education policy so as curb the number out-of-school children in the country, reports ITREALMS.

He made this call while delivering a keynote address at the fundraising organised by AI-foundation, a UK and Nigeria registered charity organisations with the theme "Panacea to a Menace" held in Lagos recently.

He underscored the fact that the implementation of the education policy would allow the country to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in which the whole world agreed to a commitment to give all children an inclusive and quality education by 2030.

Prof. Umar Katsayal decried the inability by relevant authorities to strict implement policies such as the National Policy on Education, the Teacher Education Policy, the Child Rights Act, the Compulsory Free Universal Basic Education Act, the Commission for Almajiri Education for the out of School Children to name a few.

"These and many other relevant policies by the federal and state governments need to be fully implemented in order to tackle the issue of out-of-school children which to a large extent contribute to the insecurity the country is bedeviled with. Education needs to be fully funded," he declared.

Prof. Katsayal stressed the need to review the compulsory Free Universal Basic Education Act, 2004 which makes it difficult for states to meet up with the criteria to access the UBE intervention.

"This Act provides that 2% of the Consolidated Revenue Account should be devoted as a federal intervention to basic education while States are to provide 50% of whatever fund is approved to be able to access the fund" he said.

The Don insisted on the review to include increase in the funds accessible and decrease the percentage of funds states should provide as counterpart funding, pointing out that schools should be brought closer to people because in some cases, the schools located very far from their host communities, as teachers do not want to live in such far communities especially in the face of insecurity facing the country.

Also, he said, rural teaching should be incentivized as a way of encouraging teachers who are willing to teach in the rural communities.

Nigeria, Prof. Katsayal said, is one of the countries confronted with the phenomenon of out-of- school children, as millions of children and teenagers across the country are currently out of school due to one reason or the other.

"This sobering reality underscores the urgent need for us all to work together towards achieving 'Education for all' which is only achievable through commitments and perseverance. It is important here, to remind ourselves that all children deserve to receive the ‘precious gift’ of education," he maintained.

Further, the University Don enjoined well-meaning Nigerians, both home and abroad to support the foundation in reducing the number of less privileged and indigent children in slums and underserved communities back to classrooms.

"The stakeholders, all have stakes in addressing the problems associated with the issue of out-of-school children, the rate of which is truly alarming," Katsayal lamented.

ITREALMS gathered from Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) that none of the 36 states of the federation accessed the very important UBE intervention in 2018, while only 12 of out of the 36 states were able to access such intervention in the preceding year 2017.

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