The Lagos State Government has called for the enactment of a birth control law to address the menace of out-of-school children in Nigeria.
Lagos Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Mr Jamiu Alli-Balogun, made the call on the sidelines of a two-day regional stakeholders meeting.
The meeting, which was held in Ibadan from Aug. 12 to Aug. 14, had as its theme: Children Retention, Transition and Completion, Models for the Southwest States.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting was organised by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in collaboration with Oyo State Ministry of Education.
The meeting was attended by commissioners for education, religious leaders, and civil societies from Lagos, Ondo, Osun, Ogun, Ekiti, and Oyo states, respectively.
Alli-Balogun, who commended UNICEF for the initiative, said that the issue of out-of-school children was a global issue and not peculiar to Nigeria.
The commissioner said that there was a need to tackle the menace from the root.
“The issue of out-of-school children can be approached by applying birth control measures in Nigeria.
“If we keep giving birth without control and with limited resources, then we cannot make progress.
“Therefore, government at the federal level should enact a law establishing what an average family size should be in Nigeria.
“But if we do not do that, we will continue to be in the same problem,” he said.
Alli-Balogun, however, said that the Lagos State Government had deployed measures to curb the menace in the state.
According to him, Lagos State Government strives to get the children out of the street with the support of other stakeholders.
The commissioner said, “We have put in place measures to minimise the menace. The Project O that is zero tolerance for out-of-school children.
“Through this project, we combat poverty by empowering parents with the ability to send their children to school.
“We are building more schools and classrooms with the collaboration of other stakeholders.
“We are not resting on our achievements. We will remain committed due to the fact that every single child matters to us, as clearly stated by UNICEF.”
He advised that the school feeding programme of the federal government for the basic primary schools be activated to attract more children to school and make the environment more conducive.
“This factor is readily available; the federal government has done it in the past, and it was effective.
“If the federal government can probably create a budgetary line for it in our education system down to the state level, it will be a welcome fortune for states in addressing out-of-school children.
“The more we harness more resources, the more we take care of the children and improve our educational governance in Nigeria,” he said.
Earlier, Azuka Mentiki, UNICEF Education Specialist, said that the agency would continue to create an enabling environment to strengthen the states so that students have access to quality education.
Also, Mr Muhammad Okorie, officer-in-charge, UNICEF Lagos office, said that quality education was a right of every child.
Okorie said that stakeholders in the education sector must agree on a workable model to minimise the menace of out-of-school children in the country.
“This meeting creates an enabling environment for southwest states to design a model that will work as it concerns child’s retention, transition, and completion.
“And this is the mandate of UNICEF,” he said.
In his remarks, Mr Hamzat Omolaja, Director, Social Mobilisation, Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), described the meeting as laudable.
Omolaja said that recommendations from the meeting would be beneficial to stakeholders.
“UNICEF has been making efforts towards ensuring that every child has access to education. In Lagos, we have a slogan in SUBEB called ‘Leave No Child Behind’.
“The ‘leave no child behind’ is to ensure that every child that is of school age is enrolled in the system.
“And that is why, since 2020, we have been working on ‘Project 0’ which means zero tolerance for out-of-school children,” he said.
