Baskadia

"Out-of-school children"

Education, according to Malcom X, is the passport to the Future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.

Undoubtedly, the thinking Malcom X suggest a smack of Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo vision of what Nigeria educational system would become today from his time. In his opinion, he said that if effort is not made to help the less privilege to get education, the society in future would get worst, for it is the children we neglect today that will hurt the society.

This long time supposition has expressed it self in the society today, therefore the call of government to do the needful by investing in education that will reduce the alarming rate of out of school children is eminently advised.

It extremely laughable that Nigeria as blessed as 'She' is does not see it germane to invest in education from primary to tertiary.

Thus, this negligence has increased the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria, according to UNESCO the total number of out of school children and youth in Nigeria is 20.2million.

The throng of corrupt practices has made our leaders not to espy the dearth of knowledge caused by supressing one among the important bedrock in any Nation.

Education may seem not Important in the eyes of the govt but it's a sine qua non. We where obviously puzzled when we saw that the educational sector received it's lowest budgetary allocation in 2022. In 2015, 10.79% was allocated to education while in 2022 it dropped to 5.39%

The insecurity in Nigeria is an ill that need to be treated, most parent has prevented their children from going to school as a result of Insecurity. From chibok school girls, Dapchi School girls, kankara Boys, dandume, science college kangara, government girls science secondary school jangebe, college of forestry Afaka, Greenfield university kidnap and Niger Muslim school kidnap.

It's obvious that no parent will want to send their children to school in a state of insecurity. Insecurity is one of the major reason of out of school children most especially in the north, moreso they are children who learn under trees in the northern part of Nigeria.

Poverty is also a bane to the alarming rate of out of school children. The cost of a 40leaves note book in 2015 is sold for #50, but surprisingly it is now sold for a hundred and fifty naira, how can parents who manage to feed ones in a day afford to provide quality education for their children.

World bank predict the number of poor people in Nigeria to reach 95million in 2022. Its really disheartening for a country with robust natural resources to have this fat figures.

The antidote to this nation shaming menace is for the govt to invest in education, most importantly restructuring the educational system to avoid another "ASUU 2022". The govt should endeavor to have a sustainable plan for the economy that supports education, security and reduce poverty. If the Economy is well planned, by 2023 Nigeria is worth having relatively poor people who can afford education.