Worried by the rising out of school children in Nigeria and ways to discourage school drop out, the United Nations Children’s Fund, (UNICEF) on Thursday seek a collaborative support from Ogun State House of Assembly on ways to increase school enrollment.
Leading UNICEF team on an advocacy visit to Ogun State House of Assembly, Oke Mosan, Abeokuta, the Chief of Lagos Field Officer, UNICEF, Celine Lafoucriere, said the support of Ogun Lawmakers as the representatives of the people will assist in increasing school enrollment, and discourage school drop out.
Lafoucriere who reeled out the statistics of out of school children and drop-out across levels of education in the country attributed it to various factors, including inadequate evidence-based policies, limited budget allocation, shortage of teachers and classrooms, poor infrastructure, cultural norms, health and safety concerns as well as child labour amongst others.
She reaffirmed UNICEF’s readiness to develop models for reducing the number of out-of-school children and increasing the retention, transition, and completion of adolescents from primary to secondary school levels; while advocating the need for parents to have a firm belief in educational system.
Also speaking, the UNICEF Education Specialist, Azuka Menkiti sought for strategies to increase enrollment to boost the interest of school children, while working assiduously with all stakeholders in the Legislative arm to ensure seamless access to quality education.
She said Ogun State need to improve on the rate of school children enrollment, discourage school drop out and provide necessary support to the people in order to reduce out of school children.
Responding Ogun State House of Assembly assured that the State will continue to put necessary machineries in place to ensure increased collaboration with key stakeholders in the education sector to aid increased pupils’ enrolment and reduce number of drop outs so that the State will continue to maintain its pride of place as the education capital of the nation.
The Speaker, Hon. Oludaisi Elemide said for the State to retain its pride of place in the sector, it was imperative for all hands to be on deck to address the prevalent issue of school drop-out students in the South west and the country at large.
He noted that as lawmakers, part of their commitment was to embark on intervention/ constituency projects through donation of educational facilities including blocks of classrooms, organizing summer classes, facilitating donations to schools from philanthropists to complement the efforts of the State Government at providing conducive environment for teaching and learning in schools across the State.
Other Lawmakers who contributed including Honourables Adebisi Oyedele, Babatunde Tella and Lukman Adeleye, assured UNICEF of sustained synergy with government and non- governmental organizations to further enhance access to educational opportunities by pupils in their constituencies.
They ascribed the high statistics of dropout and out of school pupils in the country to the rising spate of insecurity and eroded cultural values occasioned by the influx into the country by people from neighbouring countries.
