It is with pain that millions with conscience received the news that about 10.5 million children of school age are out of school in Nigeria. Not only is this dangerous for society, it also amounts to setting ourselves up for economic failure down the line.
A report by UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics says about 263 million children are out of school and of all regions covered by the study, sub-Saharan Africa has the highest rates of exclusion. This is the region where Nigeria looms large as the so-called giant of Africa.
On a general note, the study observed that the reasons why so many children are out of school include armed conflict and prejudices against the girl child and widespread poverty. In Nigeria, factors should also include religion. This is despite pledge by countries of the world, including African countries, to give the issue serious consideration and reverse the trend by 2030.
School enrolment ratio in Nigeria is on the decline, dropping to 14 compared to 15.31 in 2016. The figures sufficiently speak to the level of seriousness government attaches to the issue. Regardless of the annual 3 percent growth in population, government should have upped its game in this regard. The 21 percent improvement in allocation to education in 2017 Budget relative to 2016 from N369.6 billion to N448 billion comes severely eroded with a 15.98 percent inflation rate as of October.
Much has been talked about how uneducated children and young adults are ready tools in the hand of mischief makers to cause instability. Not educating these numbers is akin to burying ten million mines all over the country. An army of ten million troops is an overwhelming one. This army outnumbers the entire Nigerian military with a mere 162,000 personnel. It also outnumbers the US military by Seven to one. One can only imagine the kind of nuisance this number can constitute in society should they act in concert towards causing instability.
In contrast, ten million educated young people (If they school further) are likely to contribute to economic progress as they would join with other educated people in the workforce with good skills. An educated workforce, economists say, attracts companies into a country and contributes to the competitiveness of an economy. A Report by the US Economic Policy Institute, in reference to the United States, says that “States that increase the level of education of their workforce see greater productivity”. It also recommends that states can build a strong foundation for economic success and shared prosperity by investing in education.
The ten million children out of school is more than the 5.5 million population of Singapore, a country that has made significant strides in economic development despite its relatively small population, achieving GDP of $292.7 billion and the third largest GDP per capita in the world. One can only imagine what they can achieve with an extra ten million people. There is strong evidence to support the correlation between a productive high population and economic growth and development.
By analogous reasoning, leaving out the ten million children from basic and further education represents the losses to the economy in the future. Not only will the economy lose out from their contribution to productivity, they will also constitute a drain on government resources in terms of social welfare. That is if we work on the premise that government will be faithful to its N5,000 per an economically disadvantaged person promise.
For Nigeria to attain its potential as one of the fastest growing in the world with capacity to compete with the OECD as envisaged by the N-11 classification, government should look for creative ways to provide education for these out of school children. More and more freedom should be given to religious bodies and NGOs to operate in the education arena as was the case before nationalisation of the so-called unity schools. More awareness must be carried out in regions that see western education as a threat to their faith and customs.
Governments can also transmit its commitment in the form of a bigger spending in the education sector. There can be no better for government to demonstrate the efficacy of its inclusiveness policy as enshrined in its recent Economic Recovery and growth Plan (ERGP).
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