Nigeria And The Open School Initiative

Dropping out of school is not a very wise thing to do, however, days seem to be gone when parents and administrators lost their sleep over the case of out-of-school children. Their initial headache though was borne out of fears that school drop outs never do well and so attract reproach to their parents and governments. But the eventual outcome of the likes of Bill Gates , Mark Zuckerberg, Julian Assange and Michael Dell, to mention a few, has proven such school of thought wrong.
Given that circumstantial factors such as bad influence, family and socioeconomic needs and health-related challenges could force a child out of school, many have come to the realization that such child, if given a second chance in life, could either be at par with his colleagues who are opportuned to be in school, or even outshine them.
Suffice it to say that an outright abandonment of an out-of-school child does not bring the best in the child, instead, it suffocates their destiny and highlights the ugly side of man. The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, captured this fear when he said “the increasing number of out-of-school children would continue to be a burden and a source of insecurity to Nigeria”.
His words; “education is compulsory for every child and the government must do its best to see that it is accomplished” spoke volume of the need to give the child the needed educational attention, be it formal or informal, in school or out of school, until the child us fulfilled
This understanding was demonstrated five months ago, as Nigeria, through the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Commonwealth of Learning, Canada, on Open Schooling Initiative (OSI). The move became imperative to address the alarming increase in the rate of out-of-school children.
Across the globe, study has shown that about 60 million children of primary school age don’t go to school. Approximately 1.2 million kids drop out of high school every year in the US. Surprisingly, one in every five of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria.
More startling is the report that even where primary education is officially free and compulsory, only 61 percent of 6-11 year-olds regularly attend primary school and only 35.6 percent of children aged 36-59 months receive early childhood education, and about 10.5 million of the country’s children aged 5-14 years still do not consider school a place to be. Nigeria is reputed to have the highest number of out-of-school children in the world.
The Nigerian situation was made worse by the insurgency in the north which did not spare the educational institutions in that part of the country, making school children develop serious phobia and apathy on education while parents chose to place more premium on the safety of their wards and children first before education.
The immediate past governor of Rivers State, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Amaechi, in a bid to tackle this out-of-school monster, once suggested that every state should embark on school-feeding project so as to discourage pupils and students from dropping out of school while serving to lure the already out of school back to school.
The UBEC’s decision to start an Open Schooling Programme in the 36 states of the federation by July 2019, was considered a welcome development as it was expected to provide a broader opportunity to Nigerian children.
There are testimonies that 25 out of the 53 Commonwealth countries have implemented open schooling with remarkable result. It is likely that those who might opt for the open schooling system here in Nigeria may be more technology savvy at the end of the day than those who even attend conventional school.
According to the President of the Commonwealth of Learning, Professor Asha Kanwar, the organisation has found, over the years, that open schooling or alternative schooling is the answer to the problem of out -of school-children. This is so because “Children will only learn what is relevant to them, and not to learn number counting or literacy”.
Depending on the prevailing need of the time, they could be taught how to make nets, how to fish, how to mend boats or any form of craft and they would be happy to be back to school because they would see it as a curriculum relevant to them.
The open school initiative aims at a flexible learning experience where children can also study without going to school. The system provides education to remote areas under the motive to increase literacy.This was a strategy designed to increase school enrollment in the country.
Knowledge, they say, is one lifelong process and should be presented in the same manner. With open school, the learning never stops. Children study as per their wish. They follow their own timetable and deadlines, which in turn makes them better at prioritizing their needs.
At the primary and secondary school levels, not much has actually been heard in this regard. Much as we applaud this initiative with all the potential it possesses in helping the child fulfill his dream in life, the writer craves the indulgence of the proponents of the initiative to let it fly, so the aim could be achieved eventually.

Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi