Falana, Otitoju, Ighodalo, others to headline out-of-school kids summit

Ahead of the maiden edition of the IA-Foundation Out-of-School Children Summit in Lagos, the organization has announced the first batch of dignitaries  outlined as speakers at the Education Summit.

The summit which is themed “Street to School: A Panacea to a Menace” is scheduled to hold on Wednesday, October 18 at the Lagos Marriott Hotel, Ikeja.

Founder and CEO of the organisation, Mrs. Ibironke Adeagbo made the announcement in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Mrs. Ibironke reiterated the Foundation’s commitment to continue to take a front role in education advocacy against the increasing rate of out-of-school children in the country.

“We have over 20.2 million out-of-school children in Nigeria and this is not a time to be smiling. It is a time to develop strategic panaceas to the Out-of-School Children menace and one way is to ensure a systematic and mass exodus of children from the streets to the school, including formal and informal education,” the UK-born Nigerian education advocate disclosed.

The conference which will be also be livestreamed across multiple online platforms willbe attended by Education Stakeholders, Researchers, School owners, Corporates with CSR in Education, Educational NGOs, Philanthropists and government officials.

“We understand that the challenges leading to out-of-school children crisis is complex and has multiple-dimensions. There is the political and policy barriers, socio-cultural barriers, economic barriers, as well as the security barriers among all others and that is why we have strategically invited speakers, with expertise, and experiences across different sectors to explore, dissect the subject matter and develop a collaborative and robust solution through the summit,” she added.

The speakers include: Femi Falana (SAN), human rights activist; Tunde Onakoya, founder of Chess in Slums Africa; Babajide Kolade-Otitoju, Group Controller, News and Current Affairs, TVC; Babajide Ogunsanwo, Founder and CEO, Facts and Co.; Chike Ogeah, MD, Mac-Folly Hospitality Limited; Prof. Adegbemi Onakoya, Professor of Development Economics, Babcock University; and Ituah Ighodalo, Partner, SIAO, an Founder, Trinity Church.

Mrs. Adeagbo thanked them for agreeing to speak at the event despite their busy schedules while announcing that the second batch of speakers will be announced shortly.

The summit is a response to the increasing need to create national awareness about the menace of out-of-school children and the potential consequences of continuous relegation of universal education in Nigeria. The goal of the event is to achieve multi-sector awareness, involvement, and
investment in addressing the embarrassing statistics of 20.2 million out-of-school children in the country. “We want stakeholders to be self-aware of the relevance of contributing to efforts to take children from the street to the classroom,” she said.

IA-Foundation is a UK and Nigerian registered charity with a vision to drastically reduce the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria through the elimination of barriers, advocacy, provision of school supplies, and empowerment of families with education relief solutions. Since the establishment of the Foundation in 2019, 100 children have been placed in schools and provided over 4,000 scholastic materials.