The National Assembly is currently considering a bill, which proposes jail terms for parents who fail to send their wards to school. But stakeholders are worried that the move is unrealistic and should be discountenanced. IYABO LAWAL reports.

The Senate recently passed for second reading, a bill recommending jail term for parents who fail to enrol their wards for primary and secondary education.

The legislation sponsored by Senator Orji Kalu, and titled: “Compulsory Free Universal Basic Education Act 2004, Section 2,” states that it is the responsibility of every government in Nigeria to provide free, mandatory, and universal basic education to every child of primary and junior secondary school age.

The Act further specified that: “Every parent shall ensure that his ward attends and completes primary and junior secondary school, even as it places the onus on education stakeholders in a local council to ensure that every parent or guardian fulfills this obligation as stipulated in Section 2(2) of the Act.

The legislation stated that parents who contravene the aforementioned provisions shall face consequences.

On first conviction, a parent will be reprimanded. On a second conviction, may be liable to pay a fine, or face imprisonment for one month, or possibly both. Subsequent convictions could lead to imprisonment, or both.

The Act recommends a fine of N50, 000 for parents who default in providing their children with primary and secondary school education. Initially, the Senate proposed a N5,000, but it was changed to N50,000 in its amendment.

The amendment states: “Section (4) (b) of the Principal Act is amended by deleting N2,000 and inserting N20,000. Section (4) (c) of the Principal Act is amended by deleting N5,000 and inserting N50,000.”

At the moment, Nigeria is the world’s capital of out-of-school children with about 20 million of them anywhere but in the classroom. A few years ago, the number stood at just over 13 millions

In a bid to explain the rising out-of-school children phenomenon, the immediate past minister of education, Adamu Adamu, had accused parents of deliberately keeping their children out of school and sabotaging government’s efforts at ensuring a better future for the younger generation.

“Unless the issue of parents who refuse to send their children to school is made a crime, and we start jailing parents, the menace of out-of-school children will not be resolved. There are many who are still working behind culture and religion,” Adamu asserted.

The idea of jailing parents who prefer to have their children stay at home or roam the streets is not new, but has been around for years, and now constitutes a threat employed by many states’ governments when they appear to be bereft of ideas on how to contain the scourge of out-of-school. Familiar examples, little or no actions.

In 2019, the government of Borno State threatened to prosecute parents who fail to enrol their children in schools, when its Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Kaka-Shehu Lawan, warned that any parent, either out of ignorance or willingly refuses to send his child to school, would be made to face the full wrath of the law.

The government had directed the Borno State Basic Education Board to mobilise all children of school age to be enrolled in school.

Perhaps, taking a cue from Borno, a year later, a professor of English, Ismaila Tsiga, also called for the prosecution of parents who fail to enroll their wards in the free compulsory basic education.

Tsiga, a former education commissioner in Katsina State, claimed that no state in the country has prosecuted any parent that failed to send his or her children to school for the free compulsory basic education as provided by the UBE Act 2004.

The Delta State Government also toed a similar path by introducing Delta Education Marshals (DEM), which has been replicated, in some states of the federation as a template.

The DEM policy was formulated by the state government to eradicate “street culture” and create what the appropriate
“learning culture.”

The EduMarshals were also mandated to detect and prevent truancy; apprehend school-age children hawking or selling in shops during school hours; maintain school hours’ surveillance, arrest, return or register any child found outside during school hours.

The EduMarshals were also to provide intelligence to relevant ministries, police and stakeholders on any matter relating to a child, to make a child less than 18 years of age attend school or learn a trade (skills acquisition), and to ensure that the streets of Delta State were free of children during school hours.

The Osun State government also introduced the Education Marshalls template and there is the Oyo State government’s Education Monitoring Marshalls, introduced to arrest and discipline pupils loitering around during school hours.

In the same vein, the Rivers State government introduced measures to jail parents who keep their children out of school, noting that the Child Rights Act makes it a crime for parents not to send their wards to school.

The Bayelsa State Executive Council also signed into law, the Compulsory Primary and Secondary Education Law, which made it mandatory for every child of school-age to be enrolled into the various model schools of the government.

The Lagos State government, in a similar vein stated that any child found loitering or hawking on the streets during school hours would be picked up, while their parents or guardian would be dealt with as provided by the law.

But despite these pronouncements, children are still seen on the streets, hawking and doing other menial jobs during school hours. These developments forced some stakeholders to believe that the pronouncements and so-called policies by government at all levels were far from being genuine.
They further argued that if governments expended the same level of energy and strategy that it deploys in campaigning for elections, and getting people to attend their rallies, immense successes would have been recorded in helping parents keep their children in school.

The Coordinator, Child Protection Network, Oyo State Chapter, Dr Ibironke Adedeji, said that jailing parents because their children are not in school is an ill-wind that blows nobody any good.

She noted that parents whose children stay at home, or roam the streets are often the impoverished ones, adding that there are many of them across the states, especially in the northern part of the country.

The National President, Save A Child Foundation, Emily Johnson, wondered who would take care of the affected children if their parents were sent to prison. She described as a no-brainer, imposing a fine on a parent who lives on less than $2 a day for refusing to send his or her children to school.
“It will be too arbitrary and counter-productive if the government does not first address causative agents of the out-of-school phenomenon including culture, religion, grinding poverty, and extremism.

“In the United States, depending on the state, an errant parent can be fined between $20 and $1,500, or a jail term of five days for his children’s absence from school.

“A note of warning should be sounded though, should the government make good its threat, it should also be ready to prepare foster homes that will cater for children whose parents are serving in various prisons across the country. It will need to expand existing gaols. It will also need to build new prisons with fitting inscription that says: ‘Here languish poor, pathetic Nigerian parents who cannot afford to send their children to school.’

On his part, Tony Edem, a public analyst, said that it is not just enough to make laws, the government must be ready to implement such laws and policies.

“Just last year, the Edo State government vowed to arrest and prosecute parents and guardians, who violate the Child Rights Law, especially those who deny their children access to education. Yet, out-of-school children have been roaming the street, and no parent has been arrested and prosecuted,” Edem stated.

A retired principal, Olabisi Akinola, said that the approach to ending the challenge may not be particularly effective, adding that while it is the responsibility of the Federal Government to provide free basic education for children, such can only be done through the primary caregivers, who are parents in this case, and would need resources and incentives.

He said: ”There are a number of issues involved here, ranging from parents’ capabilities to issues of culture. We should also analyse the role played by poverty in the households. How does a family that cannot feed its children think of education? Other possible models apart from such coercive legislations should be examined, as well as how it was done in Cuba, or even in the old Western Region in Nigeria earlier on. Importantly, there is the need to address the value systems, address social and cultural barriers, involve communities; establish programmes and give incentives. When you do all that you wouldn’t need coercive legislation.”

A university teacher, Dr Ade Onasanya, said that beyond legislating, public schools should be made attractive and free.

According to him, basic education should be considered a social service as obtainable in other climes, only then can those who fail to enrol their wards be punished.