FIGURES are deceptive. They hide the faces and agonies of those they represent. In other circumstances, statistics conceal the dangers they foretell, especially where the authorities, and all those who should use them ignore. Often it is the case. We later mourn the consequences of inactions, or the half measures installed in handling them. We are in the middle of dreadful path again. We should not, for the implications of doing “business as usual” should not be entertained by governments that profess high concerns about the future. The most recent statistics from UNESCO say about 10.5 million Nigerian children are not in school. They are big enough to be the 29th most populous country in Africa and the 82nd most populous in the world, yes a world of stark illiterates, in a world that is driven with turbo-charged technologies which require education. Nigeria’s collection of uneducated children is bigger than the population of South Sudan, Somalia, Burundi, and Central Africa Republic. They are about 1 per cent of Africa’s 1.1 billion people and almost 6 per cent of Nigeria’s population. They are significant, if we realise that they are not static, and the future of their progenitors is already impaired by their own lack of education. It may shock many to know that Nigeria has 47 per cent of the world’s out-of-school children. The shock would be over what our governments have done over the years with budgets and buzz for education. The 10.5 million were not produced over night, meaning that for decades, Nigeria has not cared about her children well enough to ensure that more and more of them are in school. It may say something about the importance attached to education beyond the renovation of schools and occasional announcements about changes in curriculum. It would be sad if governments think their responsibilities end there. They need to do more. One area governments have failed woefully in the past 10 years is the refusal to enforce the Child’s Rights Act of 2003. It is one of the laws making the illegal rounds of State Houses of Assembly which have appropriated the rights of the National Assembly by re-writing a law the National Assembly passed, or simply stating it did not apply to their States. The law makes generous provisions for the education of the child and protects him from child labour, one of the many reasons he may not be in school. High poverty levels, and verbal attention to free education in most States, see more children out of school. Governments and civil society groups have to intervene decisively to save Nigeria the millions of troubles a huge uneducated and unskilled population portends.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 18:53:23 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015