Intentionalandstrategic,Lagosdemonstrates resolvetotackleNigeria’sout-of-schoolchildren menace

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) recent statistics on Nigeria’s out-of-school children have further bolstered the dire state of education in the country Recently, the international body released figures that have further alarmed players in the education sector; parents, government, teachers and civil society organizations. The figures have led to recriminations about the party responsible for the disgrace

Disclosing that it used a new and improved methodology to arrive at the latest figures, UNESCO said Nigeria’s out-of-school number is no longer about 10 million but 20 million “The new estimates, published online by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) and the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report, show that sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the most children and youth out of school with 98 million children and young people excluded from education It is also the only region where this number is increasing; out-of-school rates are falling more slowly than the growing school-age population.

“The region with the second highest out-of-school population is Central and Southern Asia with 85 million. The top three countries with the most children and youth excluded from education are India, Nigeria and Pakistan,” the report noted

It added that “important data gaps have been filled in countries that have large out-of-school numbers but where no administrative data of good quality has been available for over a decade, such as Nigeria, which has an estimated 20 2 million children and youth out of school, Ethiopia (10 5 million), the Democratic Republic of Congo (5 9 million) and Kenya (1 8 million) ”

While some education stakeholders have disputed the latest UNESCO figures, others, like Lagos State under Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, have continued working assiduously to reduce the number of out-of-school children. Since assuming office, Sanwo-Olu has consistently increased educational budgetary allocation and other sustainable interventions.

In 2022, he allocated the lion’s share of N171 6 billion to education and next year It will take the third largest share of the budget While 20 06 per cent (N339 billion) of the 2023 budget is for infrastructure and 11 29 per cent (N191 billion) for healthcare and the environment, 9 07 per cent (N153 5 billion) is for education

According to the Governor, the education allocation enables the government to consolidate the gains of previous investments in the sector Though the portion needs parity with UNESCO’s recommendation, it is way higher than other states It affirms the government’s commitment to education and reducing out-of-school children.

Apart from the huge commitment to education, he has empowered relevant bodies such as the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB) to function optimally, with the award winning EKOEXCEL programme under its wing, a strategic technology-driven intervention that continues to record remarkable successes

LASUBEB under the stewardship of its Chairman, Honourable Wahab Alawiye-King, has continuously put measures in place to address the menace of out-of-school children with various awareness drives to encourage people to send their children to school and keep them there One of these includes Project Zero

The third phase commenced last month after a meeting between LASUBEB and other critical players in the education sector Commenting at the occasion, Alawiye-King, reassured that Project Zero would support every less privileged child willing to acquire basic education.

Mrs Sijuade Idowu-Tiamiyu, LASUBEB Board Member in charge of Social Mobilization and Project Zero, reiterated the same position at the phase three launch She disclosed that over 7,000 children have been kitted and enrolled back to school in the previous phases of Project Zero

She further disclosed that LASUBEB is set to enroll over 5,000 in this new phase of the Zero Tolerance to Out of School Children initiative Its focus is on voluntary enrolment with the government’s support

While Project Zero has been addressing the issue, on the one hand, EKOEXCEL, with its global edtech partner, NewGlobe, has also been actively working to bring pupils back to school. It ensures that learning is fun to retain the interest of those already in classes with a methodology that has attracted praise globally.

In a seminal study released earlier this year, 2019 Nobel Prize-winning economist Professor Michael Kremer found that the EKOEXCEL methodology, also operational in Kenya, is having significant impacts Professor Kremer detailed how pupils tutored with EKOEXCEL’s methodology gain almost an additional year of learning (0 89), learning in two years what their peers in traditional schools learn in nearly three

The findings in Professor Kremer’s study put the learning gains in the top 1% of learning gains ever rigorously studied at scale in low and middleincome countries For early childhood development (ECD), the gains were even bigger. ECD pupils using the same methodology as EKOEXCEL gained almost an additional year and a half of learning (1.48). They learned in two years what students in other schools learn in three and a half years.

The instructional method involving classroom cheers and other activities has also helped retain pupils in school as learning has become more fun

A just concluded creative enrolment campaign by LASUBEB has further demonstrated its commitment to taking children of school age off the streets via technology

LASUBEB, in partnership with LAMATA and Chorus technology, ran a pupil enrollment drive Ad, illustrating the many gains of enrolling pupils in todays’ Lagos State public primary schools, showcasing a few of the programmes success stories, on the Lagos State Bus Rapid Transit, also known as B.R.T, in which all commuters on the bus are provided with free internet services to enjoy their travel time, in turn are to view a 60second video advertisement

The platform also provided a Call-ToAction link while commuters viewed the Ad, for pupil registration support and received many inquiries from interested parents and guardians

The well-received initiative was another out-of-the-box solution by the LASUBEB to reduce the number of outof-school children in the state after it had become a national embarrassment

There’s no gainsaying that the massive number of out-of-school children in Nigeria has become a social problem that needs urgent attention. The steps Lagos State is taking to address the issue are commendable.

On a national level, Hon Alawiye-King joined other stakeholders in the education sector to seek a stronger political will, adequate funding, improved strategies and consistency in tackling the out of school children (OOSC) menace in Nigeria.

The stakeholders made their position known at a National Conference on “Rethinking the Approaches to Addressing the Out-of-school Children Phenomenon in Nigeria” in Abuja, last October

Declaring the conference open, was minister of education, Adamu Adamu, who noted that Nigeria’s education is too strategic and too sensitive to be left in the hands of the government alone He further called for review of approaches to addressing the OOSC scourge

Adamu challenged all stakeholders to bring to bear greater courage to reposition basic education in Nigeria and challenged all stakeholders to bring to bear greater courage to reposition basic education in Nigeria

Also at the conference was Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr Hamid Bobboyi, who said that the various interventions of the government had helped in stabilizing the number of outof-school children

Bobboyi said that the conference was therefore geared towards rolling back to ensure that the number reduces on a yearly basis

He said that the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report which provided new data for OOSC, rather than repudiating Nigeria’s data, served to validate most of the age categories provided by NPA