To Decline In School Enrolment
Oof School Children (OOSC), despite the initiatives put in place in recent past by Ondo State government, has soared astronomically beyond proportion, poising a huge threat not only to development indices, but also to the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
Data and survey analyses show that the number of school children keeps increasing in the state despite the social investment programmes and interventions by state and Federal Government in recent time.
According to Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) 2008, the total population of primary age children in the state is: 575,249, out of school children is: 34,660 (6 per cent); dropped out: 10.2 per cent, expected to enter at age seven: 85.1 per cent while expected to never enter is: 4.7 per cent.
The survey pegs total population of junior secondary age at 276, 443; OOSC at 6,682 and 2.4 per cent; dropped out: 32.8 per cent, expected to enter at age 17: 0.0 per cent and expected to never enter at 67.2 per cent. United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has expressed deep concerns in this ugly trend, and as a watchdog, raised the alarm over the untoward implications on the future of the nation and sub-saharan region.
UNICEF Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (PME) Specialist, Mr. Niyi
Olaleye, at a workshop organized by the Akure Field Office recently, examined the situation of children and women in South West states based on Multiple Indicators Cluster Survey (MICS) in the last 10 years. The MICS report estimated children age 36-35 months who are attending an early childhood education programme at 57.8 per cent in 2007, an increase to 78.4 per cent in 2011 but slumped to 73.6 per cent between 2016 and 2017.
Olaleye showed that children in first grade of primary school who attended pre-school during the previous school year was 89.4 per cent in 2007, 10.4 per cent in 2011 but increased to 61 per cent between 2016 and 2017.
The report revealed that children of school-entry age who entered the first grade of primary school was 69.1 per cent in 2007, 70.3 per cent in 2011 but decreased to 65.3 per cent between 2016 and 2017. While children of primary school age currently attending primary or secondary school was 98.8 per cent in 2007, reduced drastically 95.7 per cent in 2011 and dropped to 91.8 per cent between 2016 and 2017.
According to the MICS findings, children of secondary school age currently attending secondary school or higher was 76.1 per cent in 2007, increased to 78.8 per cent in 2011 but decreased to 77.6 per cent between 2016 and 2017.
And percentage of children entering the first grade of primary school who eventually reach last grade was 99 per cent in 2007, 100 per cent in 2011 but dropped to 98.3 per cent between 2016 and 2017. While children of school age out of primary and secondary school between 2016 and 2017 were 8.2 per cent and 8.4 per cent respectively.
Basically, there were noticeable increases in the number of students that rushed to school in 2007 and these were traceable to the initiatives of government then, especially the immediate past government of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko who ruled from 2009 to 2017.
Within the period, there are numerous social investment programmes in the education sector especially the Mega Schools and Free Shuttle Bus Scheme, which Mimiko intentionally established to bridge the gap between the poor and the rich in the state.
Most of these initiatives became a reference points for the state across the federation and the bases for the interstate Social Protection (SP) study tour organized by UNICEF in June 2016 for 16 states and over 77 personnel of Technical Working Groups (TWG).
The Special Adviser to Governor on Public and Inter-governmental Relations, Mrs Olubunmi Ademosu, whose office also coordinates the school feeding programme, noted that the Home Grown School Feeding Programme, among other goals, was meant to encourage school enrolment.
Ademosu revealed that about 78,000 pupils were already being fed in the state with the target to touch over 100,000 pupils across the three senatorial districts.
She added that the Federal Government’s Social Intervention Programme (SIP) is always reviewed with effective processes of ensuring that the programme was not politicised so that the purpose won’t be defeated.
The Special Adviser, however, mentioned that the agency discovered that about 95 per cent of pupils in Akoko area of the state were not benefitting from the programme when it took off in the state.
Whereas, the scheme experienced a hitch last year, less than six weeks after the Vice
President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo launched it in Akure, over 1000 cooks employed for the scheme deserted the schools for lack of salary payments.
But the coordinator attributed it to some logistic problems from the cooks and disclosed that the teething challenges being witnessed had already been rectified as a team of government officials worked tirelessly with the monitoring agency in Abuja. This facilitated the comeback of the programme during the first term resumption date last year September with better and robust coordination that ensures that no area of the state is denied from benefitting from the programme.
However, some policies of the present administration in the education sector have not been favourable to the students considering the economic hardship in town and its implications to parents and guardians. The President of Movement for the Survival of the Underprivileged (MOSUP), Mr. Dappa Maharajah, alongside other stakeholders, blamed the increasing number of OOSC on some unfavourable policies of the state government.
Maharajah, without mincing words, diametrically faulted the Education Summit and the visitation panel to the state-owned tertiary institutions, describing them as jamboree for moneymaking ventures. Analyzing the Education Summit, which was hit with widely spread criticism from the public, he noted that it was driven to monetize the sector and rescind the social protection initiatives embarked upon by past government to care for the vulnerable in the society.
On resumption to office, sources close to Governor Akeredolu revealed that he had wanted to scrap the free school bus shuttle programme, but was dissuaded from taking such step because of the negative political implications.
According to MOSUP boss, “This administration then heaps the cost of some of these essential services on the tuition fees and levels of the students through the backdoor, passing the brunt on parents and guardians thereby making live more unbearable.”
He lampooned the state government for its travesty of development initiatives in the education sector, saying “how could you expect more enrolment in education when tuitions are extremely high? School feeding, with reference to the aforementioned, is like gathering with one arm to disperse with the other arm.”
Investigation further revealed that public primary school pupils now pay more levies and admission to public secondary schools ranges between N80, 000 to N100, 000; while there were tremendous hikes of tuition in the tertiary institutions last year. For the record, there was widespread condemnation in the over 500 per cent tuition increment of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko (AAUA) from N35, 000 to over N200, 000, though it was reduced but several scores still couldn’t pay and forfeited their admission last year.
Moreover, Ondo State, like other South West states, had thrived on free education since the regional era. The cancellation of free WAEC registration by Akeredolu-led government has disrupted in no small measure the education sector.
The Guardian gathered from a reliable source within the institution that less than 4,000 candidates applied for the post UTME examination this year compared to over 12,000 applicants recorded annually but dropped due to the astronomical rise in tuition.
A guardian, Oluwapamilerin Aribigbola, who has been sponsoring some pupils and students in the neighbourhood, lamented that the hike in tuition has deprived some students the right to education in the state. According to her, some pupils around her office could not further their education to secondary school due to the high cost of admission while more than 10 undergraduates in her neighbourhood can no longer continue with their studies.
Aribigbola, who is the CEO of DAPS Events and Bridals, Akure, decried the negative implications of high cost of education to the state, warning that it portends dangers and insecurity in the nearest future.
A father of four, Mr. Rotimi Olawoye, declared that the inability of children to access formal education has exposed them to all sorts of societal misdemeanors and behaviour.
Olawoye said the bid to survive leaves the children with no option to engage themselves in menial jobs such as hawking, servitude, driving, prostitution and many others to make them prone to abuses and brutality.
“Many of these children are abandoned on the streets of our nation today, and out of despondency and hopelessness, they take to all sorts of crime for survival. They are easy preys for societal decadence and rots. “The moment government refuses to train a child by giving him/her affordable access to education, the society readily takes in such child and feed him/her to become a menace to the society.”