How poverty, insecurity, others hobble SDG-4 target
19 November 2024 |
4:09 am
Nigeria’s chances of realising the Sustainable Development Goal of quality education for all by 2030 are fading away fast unless the country takes swift and decisive actions to combat widespread poverty and escalating insecurity.
With widespread poverty and insecurity nationwide, attaining the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of quality education for all is far-fetched ahead of 2030. Worst is that at the current slow pace of progress, and without better collaborative efforts across levels, it would take the country approximately 58 years to return a million children to classrooms, OWEDE AGBAJILEKE reports.
Nigeria’s chances of realising the Sustainable Development Goal of quality education for all by 2030 are fading away fast unless the country takes swift and decisive actions to combat widespread poverty and escalating insecurity.
Goal 4 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals seeks to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Its targets include every child completing free, equitable, and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes by 2030.
It also entails every child having access to quality early childhood development, care, and pre-primary education; equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational, and tertiary education, including university; a substantial increase in the number of youths and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills for decent jobs and entrepreneurship.
Sustainable Development Goal 4 also seeks the elimination of gender disparities in education and canvasses equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, and children in vulnerable situations.
Data obtained from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) reveal that Nigeria has over 20 million out-of-school children, the highest in Africa and the third globally.
Findings also indicate that poverty, insecurity, as well as, demolition of houses across the country have further aggravated the issue of out-of-school children, resulting in the displacement of millions of children school age.
Additionally, highlights of the 2022 Multidimensional Poverty Index survey revealed that 63 per cent of persons living within Nigeria (133 million people) are multi-dimensionally poor.
Nigeria also faces threats of infrastructural gaps with a staggering need for 20,000 additional schools, and 907,769 classrooms to accommodate the burgeoning out-of-school children according to the Executive Secretary, of Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr Hamid Bobboyi.
He recently relayed to the immediate past Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, and the Minister of State, Dr Yusuf Sununu, how infrastructural gaps and inadequate manpower have hindered the commission’s efforts to provide equitable access to quality basic education.
Because of these infrastructural gaps and inadequate manpower, the government’s plan of returning 15 million of the out-of-school children to classrooms by 2027 remains skeptical as it would require a quarterly enrollment of 937, 500 children, a target that appears worrisome considering the current slow pace of progress.
It was in a bid to combat the problem that the Federal Government created the National Commission for Almajiri and Out-of-School Children’s Education (NCAOOSCE), which is tasked with resolving the issue of children missing out on formal education, especially those in informal Islamic schools.
While the commission said that it successfully mopped up over 20,000 out-of-school children in the Federal Capital Territory in the last three weeks, stakeholders deplore the snail’s speed stressing that at this slow pace, it would take the Commission approximately 58 years to return 20 million children to schools.
A data analyst, Anslem Osaretin, is of the opinion that if it took the Almajiri Commission three weeks to return 20,000 out-of-school children to the classroom, it would take 57 years and seven months to return 20 million of them to school at the same rate of return.
Mamman, while unveiling the 2024 to 2027 Education Roadmap, last year, described the reduction of out-of-school children by 15 million within the period as a priority. This he said would be achieved through the establishment of the commission, approving a policy on Early Child-Care Development in Education (ECCDE), as well as, engagement with state governments on removing bottlenecks against optimal utilisation of the Universal Basic Education funds.
He held that the roadmap, which contains practical, problem-solving, and realistic approaches across 13 thematic areas would allow for concurrent implementation as part of a synergistic whole.
He said: “Suffice to say that it is an embarrassment that Nigeria is continually associated with one of the highest numbers of out-of-school children in the world. We will be paying particular attention to this unacceptable phenomenon, and in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment, work towards returning 15 million children to the classrooms by 2027.
“We will re-invigorate our focus on basic education, including ensuring, harmonising, and coordinating resources and activities among all tiers of government and development partners.”
The United Nations Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Mathias Schmale, had warned that Nigeria was off track in achieving the SDGs by 2030, calling for urgent action.
At the Africa Social Impact Summit (ASIS), Schmale emphasized that Nigeria alongside several other African countries, required collaborative efforts across various government levels and key stakeholders to address existing development gaps.
With the theme, “Rethink, Rebuild, Recover: Accelerating Growth for the SDGs,” the summit was hosted by Sterling One Foundation with a view to putting Nigeria on track to achieve the SDGs target by 2030.
Schmale said: “As Africa’s largest country by both population and size of the economy, Nigeria is critically important to the success of the 2030 agenda, both in its rights and globally. As it stands, Nigeria is unfortunately not on track to reach any of the SDGs by 2030. The same is true across many other African countries.”
Stakeholders are also warning that children not in school are vulnerable to being manipulated into engaging in anti-social behaviours and may be used by politicians as tools for instigating violence during times of social turmoil.
They pointed to the recent #EndBadGovernance protests, especially in the northern part of the country, where out-of-school children were observed participating in violent demonstrations, engaging in destructive behaviours, and looting property alongside other protesters.
On its part, a research, development, and advocacy organisation – Hipcity Innovation Centre, said that the destruction of homes by various governments apart from exacerbating societal challenges sets children on a path to illiteracy and prepares them for social vices, or those to be preyed on by unscrupulous elements.
The Executive Director of the Centre, Bassey Bassey, pointed out that the demolition of houses across the country has led to an increase in the number of children who are not in school.
“Every time demolition occurs, families lose their places of residence and we know that based on the way our school systems are designed, children are supposed to go to schools that are closest to them. When houses are destroyed, families are forced to move away, sometimes, they don’t know where to go as they lack the resources to rent houses. They may even have to move away from urban centres to the interiors, and at that instance, the children will have to drop out of school, adding to the number of out-of-school children.
“What it means is that we will have illiterate children who grow into adulthood. And because they do not have education, they will engage in social vices or become available weapons in the hands of the wrong people, but we don’t want that for our society. If that vibrancy is not positively harnessed, there is a high possibility of those children becoming miscreants. We see these children every other day take on different forms of crimes in a bid to survive. We want safe cities, where children have a right to school, grow in the right atmosphere, and become tools for sustainable development,” Bassey said.
Also, the Initiator of the Creative Change Centre, Omole Ibukun, believes that with committed leadership, Nigeria can resolve the issue of out-of-school children within three years.
According to him, the country should prioritise investing in teachers and the building of new schools rather than purchasing new planes for the president and spending billions to secure the comfort of political officeholders.
“We have the human and material resources to train teachers, build infrastructure, and plan curriculum to eradicate the out-of-school children problem even before 2030. We have young, educated, and skilled people who would happily train and work as quality teachers to achieve this goal if teachers are well paid. We can invest in those teachers instead of buying new aircraft for the president. We have enough wealth in Nigeria to build schools that can take in the out-of-school population.
“The take-home pay of one Senator for one month can build a block of classrooms that can accommodate 100 pupils. Imagine what the take-home of all the senators will do for one month. Is it out of place that the #EndBadGovernance protests demanded that lawmaking in Nigeria should become a part-time volunteer job?
“There are experiments in some parts of the country where free feeding for school-children in school increased the population of pupils who came to school. Let us imagine combining free school meals with free basic education.”
Ibukun added that the problem of poverty and insecurity will be automatically solved because “we have heard of cases where terrorist groups recruited people with food. We can cut off their base if our leaders become genuinely interested in funding public education.”
Efforts to get the reaction of the Federal Ministry of Education proved abortive as the Director of press and Public Relations, Folasade Boriowo, declined to speak on the issue.
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