Ibironke Adeago Foundation (IA Foundation) has committed to take 1,000 children off the streets and enrol them into schools across Nigeria in five years.
This is in a bid to help reduce the number of out-of-school children in the country.
IA Foundation also called on the government at all levels and other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to work collaboratively to drastically reduce the worrisome number.
SDG Four: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
According to recent data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Nigeria now has about 20 million out-of-school children.
However, that figure has been faulted by the country’s education ministry, which questioned the metrics with which the UN agency employed to arrive at that number.
Data from the United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) also reveal that one in every five of the world’s out of-school children is in Nigeria.
The founder of the IA Foundation, Ibironke Adeagbo described the present out-of-school children figure as embarrassing, saying it is a serious threat to the economy and security of the nation.
‘When people are not educated, they are more likely to end up in poverty because they may lack the skills, competencies, and certifications to earn them a good job’, she said.
‘So, they are economically inactive, and when poverty increases, they resort to crimes and all sort of illegal activities’.
Adeagbo charged the next president, come 2023, to prioritise education and increase the budgetary allocation with a political will to reduce the out-of-school numbers.
On his part, the Programmes and Partnerships Manager at the foundation, John Klutse, called on various governments to wake up to the challenge and fix the education system.
The scourge of out-of-school children has remained seemingly intractable in spite of several intervention efforts by the federal government, including the establishment of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), and donor agencies.
Photo source: UNICEF
