The founder of Street to School initiative, Mrs. Oluwatosin Olowoyeye-Taiwo, has urged Nigerians to ‘adopt a child and sponsor his or her education’ as part of efforts to reduce the huge statistics of out-of-school children in the country. 
 
She expressed concern that Nigeria has the highest number of out-of-school children in the world, saying there is an urgent need to speed up measures of bridging the gap. 

“About 10.5 million children are out of school in Nigeria, which is the highest rate in the world. This figure indicates that one-third of Nigerian children are not in school and one in five out-of-school children in the world is a Nigerian,” she said.
 
Olowoyeye-Taiwo spoke at an event where the organisation was recognised for its contribution towards promoting education in Lagos state. 
 
She said: “We are urging young professionals and matured adults to adopt a child, every child can learn if given the chance. If you can sponsor a child, that number will keep reducing because everyone can make necessary impact.

“Government is doing its part, but what we are doing is to reduce statistics and we have been on this for over seven years. We identify children that are out of school, whose parents don’t have resources to sponsor their education. We fix them in schools, pay their bills and most times, enroll them for West African Senior School Certification Examination (WASSCE) and do everything possible to ensure that they keep moving up to university level free of charge. We pair them with sponsors and young professionals willing to pay their bills. The organisation also takes up some of the financial responsibilities.”

She said the organisation had to establish a free school in rural Ikola-Odunsi Community Alimosho council of Lagos called Comenius Nursery and Primary School, when it was discovered that most of the children were waiting for sponsors. “So, instead of waiting endlessly, we established the school on a temporary make shift structure,” she said.

“The school was set up to promote quality education for all children, regardless of their socio-economic status. It is open to students who are dropouts, hawk on the streets and those whose parents cannot afford private schools around. Now we have about 200 children and so far, we have about 178 that have progressed to secondary school in private and public schools. We must ensure that no child is left behind because education is a powerful tool to change the world and a lot of reformation of the mind comes through education,” Olowoyeye-Taiwo said.