Nigeria’s 1m out of school children

Only recently, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) lamented the fate of more than 1million children forced out of school by Boko Haram insurgency in northeast Nigeria.
According to UNICEF, the number of children missing their education due to the insurgency adds to the estimated 11 million children of primary school age already out of school in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, before the onset of the crisis.
The agency noted that across Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, more than 2,000 schools remain closed for more than a year while hundreds have been attacked, looted or set on fire, even as insecurity, fear of violence and attacks are preventing many teachers from resuming classes and discouraging parents from sending their children back to school. So far, more than 600 teachers have lost their lives in Nigeria alone since the Boko Haram insurgency started.
We are really saddened by these revelations, especially as they affect the lives and future of children. Before now, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) estimated that more than 10.5million of the country’s children are out of school, thereby ranking Nigeria high among nations where a large population of schoolchildren is not in the classrooms.
In fact, the number of out-of-school children would be much higher when both dropouts, who are unable to complete school and others who because of other challenges and disadvantages have been shut out of the school system, are added up. That is why the Federal Government must come up with answer to the problem of out of school children, if only to save their future and that of the country. While these children are not to blame for their plight, it behooves the authorities to find alternative schools in other safe areas to enable them continue their education.
Incidentally, most schools in the northeast have been converted into temporary shelters for those displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency. Unfortunately, nothing is being done to ameliorate the situation, as the children are left to roam the streets and beg for alms. We are not only concerned at the lack of progress in relocating these children, the fear is that if nothing is done, there is every possibility they may end up joining the already alarming number of Almajiris in that part of the country. It would amount to a monumental tragedy if the future of these children were mortgaged on the altar of expediency and buck passing.
There is no gainsaying the fact that education is the right of every child in Nigeria. The society should therefore provide education to out of school children, to enable them to have a better life as well as ensure that our society breeds productive and positive citizens instead of destructive and negative elements. Advocates posit that education is the No. 1 guarantor of income, wealth, status and security, even as it also comes with the reduced risk of infant mortality, contracting HIV and being forced into child marriage. That is why the recent budget of N369.6 billion by President Muhammadu Buhari for education and commitment to train 500,000 teachers is welcome. We hope the allocation would help address the issue of out of school children.