Primary education, as the name implies, is the basic and foremost right of every child. It’s not only the responsibility of the government to make it available, parents and guardians have a role to play as well.
Primary education brings unending awareness among the people and opens up avenues for opportunities, as well as self-advancement, improvement, reduction in chronic and inter-generational poverty.
However, a high quality pre-school with an academically effective primary school gives children’s development a significant boost than their rival gender.
In the same vein, quality teaching affects both children’s social behaviour and intellectual development.
High quality education is significant for children with special educational needs and those with mothers that have low qualifications or even children who come from unstipulated homes.
There are many reasons why children miss school. It is as a result of poverty that has eaten deep into the average Nigerian who is at the butt of every economic downturn and parents who can hardly afford to pay the school fees of their children or wards.
In those days, communities owned schools that were attended at subsidized rate. But today, most communities in Nigeria may not be able to afford it because of prevailing scarce resources. Also, many communities are unable to own schools today because of lack of vision or focus.
In most rural communities, teachers are either half-baked or undergraduates, who lack teaching skills due to non-acquisition of formal training from relevant government agencies. This reminds me of the popular maxim that: “You can’t give what you don’t have” to the society.
Teachers should, therefore, devote themselves to teaching because greater benefits awaits them in the future. If a child is well educated, it is a plus to teachers, otherwise, it’s a minus.
Parents are not left out as they have vital roles to play in the upliftment of their children: They can  attend PTA meetings where strategic issues are discussed and solved.
Moreso, parents should enquire from teachers about the welfare of their children in the aspect of school performance, social behaviour in school, create time for their kids by monitoring their home work and assisting them in the best way they can, even if they have tight schedules, enroll them for extramural lessons to equip them intellectually.
However, parents should not choke their kids with only extra-mural lessons, but should engage them in other extra-curriculum activities during the summer break or holiday in order to expose them to various spheres of life.
It is my candid desire to draw the attention of the government to the sad state of primary education and streamline and properly modify their activities in the country. This include both the ones at the rural and urban communities. They can do this by the regular provision of needed amenities, such as, serene learning environment, textbooks, well ventilated and modernized classrooms, teaching accessories, qualified manpower and security for each of the primary schools in their areas for better development of the children, who are leaders of tomorrow.
Government at all levels should also critically look into the decayed infrastructure in these institutions and proffer lasting solutions by putting in place effective policies which can stand the test of time, as far as the educational upliftment of these younger generations of children are concerned.
Above all, government should routinely engage the services of trained teachers, seasoned administrators and other stake-holders through recruitment to handle the task of imparting sound knowledge into these children for blissful future.
Finally, I appeal to the school authorities to be proactive in protecting government properties in their institutions from vandalisation as this would go a long way to putting their various schools in better position.
I urge everyone to join hands to make primary education a success.
Obusele is a student of Abia State University.

Mirian Obusele