Enrolment: Parents react to El-Rufai’s jail threat

Some educationists have reacted to the threat by Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai to prosecute or jail parents who fail to send their kids to school in the state.

The governor through Permanent Secretary Ministry of Education Mrs Phoebe Yayi, gave the warning in Kaduna in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria on Friday.

He was quoted to have advised parents to send their children to school or face prosecution in accordance with the laws.

“As such, sending your children to school is no longer a choice, but compulsory and failure to do so is a criminal offense with a possible jail term,” she said.

But reacting to the threat, a former Education Secretary of Kaduna South Local Government Area of the state, Sanusi Surajo, told Daily Trust Saturday that punishing parents is not the solution.

He said, rather, the government should embark on sensitization campaign on the need to send children to school by involving traditional leaders.

Surajo said educating the parents on the importance of educating children is the solution.

Another educationist in Tudun Wada, Mr Abdulganeeyu Abdurrahman Giwa, also called on the governor to first motivate parents before issuing out the threat.

“There should always be motivation first before threat. So, I think the government need to motivate the parents by making them see the reasons to send those children to school.

“They also need to let the parent see the need that by the time the children get educated they will be useful to them because presently there were parents that didn’t see the need to enrol their children because they believe is of no use,” he said.