As part of efforts to address the growing number of out-of-school children, a non-governmental organisation, Ibironke Adeagbo Foundation (IAF) has called on the government to put legislation in place that will ensure that children of school age not left out of school.
Expressing concern over increased cases of out-of-school children, the foundation stated that the nation was sitting on a ticking-time-bomb, should the government continue to ignore children on the streets.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the foundation, Mrs Ibironke Adeagbo, who spoke on the highlight of the third yearly charity event of the foundation, which holds every February 26, stressed the need for government at all levels to prioritise education, warning that out-of-school children of today would be bandits of tomorrow, if necessary attention was not paid to them.
Adeagbo urged government to set up a parastatal to look into ways of reducing the number of out-of-school children, saying “this is critical, otherwise the nation will have bigger security challenges in future.
Adeagbo, who identified insecurity, poverty and early child marriage as some of the factors responsible for increase in number of out-of-school children reminded that education was key to fighting poverty.
“Government should also come up with more initiatives, such as the school feeding programme to encourage parents to send their wards to school,” she added.
Adeagbo, a United Kingdom-based Chartered Accountant said: “Whenever I come to Nigeria, I see lots of children on the streets, some of them are wiping my windscreen in traffic and I kept wondering what they are doing on the streets when they should be in school. The security challenges have exacerbated the situation, especially in the north, because children are being kidnapped and parents are now scared of sending their wards to school. This has increased the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria.”