To reduce Nigeria’s out-of-school children, the world’s highest, every Nigerian lawmaker needs to donate a share of their quarterly allowances to return the children back to school, a lawmaker said Thursday.
When Ndudi Elumelu (PDP, Delta) said this on Thursday, on the floor of the House of Representatives, there were murmurs which lasted for about 20 seconds. It took the intervention of House Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, before normalcy was restored.
Mr Elumelu noted that this should be done on the basis of each lawmaker’s constituency. By this, each lawmaker should be made to cater for the out-of-school children in their constituencies, using their quarterly allowance, he said.
If Mr Elumelu’s suggestion is to be adopted, it means senators, for instance, would have to part with a fraction of their quarterly ₦40.5 million “running cost,” at ₦13.5 million monthly — an amount that is exclusive of the ₦700,000 monthly consolidated salary and allowances which they also receive.
Special Plenary
Thursday’s plenary was devoted by the green chamber to hatch a way forward on the menace of out-of-school children.
Although accurate data are scant in Nigeria, UNICEF says Nigeria has about 10.5 million children that are not in school, the highest by any country.
Mr Elumelu was worried about this figure, and noted that apart from drawing funds from the allowances of lawmakers, state governments also need to prioritise free education to the highest level.
He urged the private sector to take it as their social responsibility to establish foundations aimed at reducing out-of-school children.
Section 18, subsection 3 of the 1999 constitution mandates the government to eradicate illiteracy, “and when practicable,” provide free, compulsory and universal primary, secondary and university education, as well as free adult literacy programme.
Chinedu Obidigwe (APGA, Anambra) said the “and when practicable” clause weakens this provision of the nation’s law. He called for an amendment, and to that, the House Speaker said the constitution amendment committee could see to amending the clause to “shall.”
Already, a bill to make education a fundamental human right has been read for the second time in the green chamber. With it, if passed, any child denied free education in any government-owned primary schools, can sue the defaulting school.
On his part, Yusuf Gagdi (APC, Plateau) questioned the government’s role in getting children out of the street.
He said that while complacency on the part of parents to enrol their wards in school cannot be overlooked, the government, too, has failed in its responsibility to educate its people.
“Is the government living up to its responsibility to provide basic amenities (in our schools)?” he asked. “It (is because it) doesn’t affect us, and our children are in foreign schools.”
Mr Gagdi’s claim has sticking semblance with a recent report which identified a host of Nigerian political leaders whose wards are enrolled in across schools abroad. This is happening while institutions in the country have series of challenges ranging from incessant strike to infrastructural decay to grapple with.
… And Almajiris too
The lawmakers also took out time to address the Almajiri system of ‘education’ in Nigeria.
The ‘Almajiri’ system is popularly associated with kids begging on the streets in many Northern Nigerian states.
Many of these kids are sent by their parents to live with and study Quranic education at a teacher’s place.
Speaking at the opening of the debate, the speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, described the system as failures of policy development and implementation.
He added that the vagaries of culture and religion have contributed to the plight of these young kids.
“We have come here today to consider the matter of the millions of children in our country who are out of school, and who, as a result, are denied their fundamental right to receive the training and skills acquisition opportunities that will allow them to have better lives than their parents before them, and provide a better future for their offspring.
“We are here to consider the failures of policy development and implementation, the vagaries of culture and religion that have contributed to the plight of these young people.
“We are here to advance solutions to this problem,” he said.
Mr Gbajabiamila said the house will act in the best interests of Nigerians by ensuring that the solutions presented at the debate are formulated into actionable policy plans to be implemented diligently, with haste, stating that this is a commitment the house made in its Legislative Agenda.
“We will live up to this and all other commitments which we have freely made before God and the Nigerian people who have chosen us to represent them here in this hallowed chamber.”
On his part, Toby Okechukwu said there is need for the cultural practices aiding the children from being put out of school to be addressed. He added that being the closest to the people, cultural and religious institutions and leaders have a role to play in tackling the menace.
Obinna Chidoka (PDP, Anambra) said girls should be properly provided for. ‘Adequate sanitary provision should be made for schools. Our educational curriculum should take into cognizance our cultural practices.’
The ‘Almajiri’ kids make a large chunk of Nigeria’s 13.2 million out-of-school children.
The media reported how about eight million of Nigeria’s out-of-school children are in 10 Northern states and Abuja.
President Muhammadu Buhari had in 2019 announced plans to ban the ‘Almajiri’ Quranic education system in Northern Nigeria. He, however, said he will not do so immediately.
The Kano and Nasarawa State Governments recently announced a ban on street begging by the Almajiris.
According to Kano State governor’s spokesperson, Abba Anwar, the effort was to fully consolidate the free and compulsory primary and secondary school education in the state.
Resolution
Part of the resolution of the house while passing the motion was that the House Committee on Basic Education should carry out a holistic investigation into the matter of Nigeria’s out of school children to ascertain amongst other things, the current figure of out of school children in Nigeria, including specific numbers in each state of the federation.
The other was an assessment of the federal government expenditure on basic education over the last 10 years to identify how and what these funds have been spent on and the status of all ongoing capital projects by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) across the country.
The house also resolved that the Committee should convene a special public hearing to receive and consider the views, submissions and concerns of stakeholders and citizens, on the matter of out of school children in Nigeria to identify the unique cultural, religious, social and economic factors that cause school dropout and failure to enroll children in schools across the country.
