Out Of School Children: Senate moves to enforce UBE Act

…wants mobile courts to arrest , prosecute neglecting parents

By Tunde Opalana

As over 20 million school aged children across the country are currently out of school, the Senate on Wednesday resolved to engage the judiciary in the 36 states of the federation to set up mobile courts for the enforcement of the Universal Basic Education Act.

This is as the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio suggested a minimum of six months jail term for parents that willingly deny their children right to education.

Akpabio went further to suggest that education at both primary and secondary level should be free in all states and that at least a meal should be served in public primary schools to attract school aged children.

The Senate urged governments at all levels to implement targeted intervention programmed that will address all the factors militating against free access to quality and basic education, particularly, multi – dimensional poverty and insecurity.

Consequently, the Red Chamber mandated its Committees on Education (Basic & Secondary) to engage the Federal Ministry of Education, paying special attention to the issue of Out of School Children, with the ultimate objective of drastically reducing the number.

The Upper Chamber also urged the Ministry of Education, its related parastatals and agencies such as the Universal Basie Education stakeholders including non-governmental organisations to severally and jointly bring up new strategy to effectively deal with Out of School Children problem as well as rekindle the national consciousness through sensitization and advocacy on the importance of education to the growth and development of our country and the benefits of having majority educated population.

The Red Chamber also urged the Ministry of Education and relevant agencies to set a time limit of two years for the diligent implementation of the UBE Act as stipulated in section 2 (2).

These resolutions were consequent upon a motion by Senator Adebule, Idiat Oluranti (APC, Lagos West), titled: “compelling need to tackle the challenge of out of school children in Nigeria.”

In the lead debate, Senator Adebule,
noted that the issue of out of school children had become worrisome, given the 2022 report of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

According to her, the report revealed that about 20 million Nigerian children were out of school, which represents ten percent of the estimated Nigerian population of 200 million people and also represents the highest number of Out of School Children from any country globally.

She also noted that though the Ministry of Education disputed the figure, but it was generally agreed that whatever the real figures, the issue of Out of School Children had become an albatross on the neck of the Nigerian State that must be dealt with as a matter of urgency, noting that the social impacts of having about 20 million Out of School Children on the Nigerian State would cut across many areas.

Supporting the motion, the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Jibrin Barau, said that it was imperative for the problem to be frontally addressed because it was the out of school children that later became tools for terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and other violent crimes in the country.

He stressed that out of school children are willing tools for terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and other violent crimes in the society.

Barau said: “I commend Sen. Adebule Idiat for moving this motion. Bringing it forward at this point is a big a
service to our nation. Education is said to be the bedrock of every society; its a pillar upon which every human being begins his or her life. It is something that is very important, a sine qua non to having a good life. An uneducated person does not hear and nor see because, he cannot separate the right from the left. We have a problem in this country even though the problem is more pronounced in some states than others. Of course, the states of Yobe, Borno, Kano, Katsina and Kaduna, and so many of the states in the northern part of Nigeria are the ones that are really facing this big national calamity. What do we need to do?

“We need to collectively put our efforts together to find a solution to this menace. Therefore, we need to collectively at the individual level, local and state governments, the federal government, high network individuals, cooperate bodies, we all need to come collectively together to make sure we find a solution to this problem. There are also issues to do with those who bear children and don’t try to find ways of taking care of them, catering for them, you make sure that at any point in time your children should be catered for.

“You should plan for them, think of the way to educate them and make sure you look after them properly as prescribed by God. Thank God we have people of faith in this country, Muslims and Christians. These two main religions, prescribe that you must take care of your child. Your child is someone that God has given to you to hold on his behalf, therefore, his shelter, clothing, education, his total well being, rests on you.

“Therefore, at individual levels, we must put this down to our parents, all the parents in Nigeria, take care of your child before we move to the authorities. The authorities of course, it has been emphasized in several meetings, fora and conferences, that we should do all within our powers to make sure we surmount this national calamity.”

Senator Adams Oshiomhole (Edo North) said illiteracy leads to dynasty of poverty and that poverty is a threat to prosperity.

Oshiomhole suggested that appropriate agencies of government in the education to publish number of out of school children in states to expose state governors that refused to pay the counterpart funding for basic education .

Senator Simon Lalong (Plateau South) said it is regrettable that some states deliberately do not want to educate children in their states.

He lamented the abandonment of the nomadic education system introduced by the Goodluck Jonathan administration.

All other Senators who contributed to the debate, spoke in favour of the motion and all the prayers made by the sponsor were adopted by the Chamber.