The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has forged partnerships with Southwest states in order to tackle the issue of out-of-school children within the region and identify the root causes of the menace.
While expressing worry over the number of out-of school children, UNICEF stressed the need for states to adopt the retention, transition, and completion model.
According to the international body, during a two-day stakeholders’ meeting on Out-of-School Children (OOSC) Models, Retention Transition and Completion (RTC), and Re-entry Guideline Activities for South-West Nigeria in collaboration with the Oyo State Ministry of Education, efforts must be geared towards creating sustainable solutions to ensure that every child has the opportunity to receive education.
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.
An education specialist with UNICEF, Mr Babagana Aminu, who disclosed that the issue of retention of schoolchildren had been one of the major challenges in the Southwest, 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.”
Another UNICEF Education Specialist, Mrs. Azuka Menkiti, advocated for more funding to be allocated to secondary schools, emphasising that “This comes from about 10 years of intervention we have done on girls’s education that has shown successful, tested, and skillable interventions that have been able to help us bring girls to school and keep them in school.
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 were already been addressed in the state.