The Federal Government has been urged to declare state of emergency on the out-of-school children menace.
The Executive Director of Seed Care and Support Foundation, Mrs. Olanrewaju Oniyitan, said this while also calling on the authorities to declare emergency in Nigeria’s educational sector over the alarming numbers of out-of-school children.
Oniyitan made this known at the launch of Seed Care & Support Foundation and the inaugural conference held recently in Ikeja, Lagos.
Speaking to newsmen on plans put in place by the foundation to ensure that all Nigerians get education, the founder said: “One thing we need to note, accept, and acknowledge is that the government cannot do this alone. In Lagos State where we are, we have just about 1,700 public schools.
“But we have over 20,000 private schools, and most of these schools, about 60 percent of them are low-fee private schools, serving children from low-income communities, even in communities where you will not find any public school at all and so it is critical for us to know that for us to achieve education for all, SDG4, we will work with the affordable non-state sector (these low-fee private schools) to achieve education for all.”
On her part, the immediate past Education Commissioner in Lagos State, Mrs Folashade Adefisayo, advised parents whose children are deprived of free education due to the unavailability of government schools in their communities to opt for low-fee schools.
“Free education schools would have been a first point of call for them, but unfortunately, there are not enough of them in many communities. So they have to go to the low-fee school in the community. Some schools have been set up by a lot of Nigerians charging the lowest possible fees. They are available to school children in many communities” she said.
Responding to questions on the alarming school fees of some privately-owned schools in Nigeria, she said that they need funds to keep their business running.
The Advisory Chair of Seed Care & Support Foundation, Mrs Abosede Paul-Obameso, described the founder of the foundation as a drop in a very mighty ocean.
She called on those in the helms of affairs in the educational sector to leave their offices to see for themselves what is happening in the community.
According to Abosede, this would facilitate a round-table discussion to determine what to do to resolve challenges in the sector.
