Don Advocates Punishment for Parents of Out-of-School Children

James Sowole in Abeokuta

A Professor of Education Management at Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago Iwoye, Ogun State, Professor Olumuyiwa Adeyemi, has called on the three tiers of governments to enforce the nation’s Universal Basic Education (UBE) Act, which prescribed various punishments, including one month jail term, for parents who failed to enroll their children and wards in school for the free and compulsory primary and junior secondary education.

Adeyemi made the call while delivering the 112th inaugural lecture of OOU at Otunba Gbenga Daniel Multipurpose Hall of the institution.

The UBE Act backed by relevant section of the Constitution, prescribed a fine of up to N5,000 or one month jail term or both for parents found guilty.

He expressed concern over the increasing number of ‘out-of- school children’ in the country, which he puts at well over 10million as of 2019, said that the trend may not abate if nothing was done to arrest it.

However, the UNESCO 2022 report puts the number of out of school children in Nigeria at approximately 20 million.

The inaugural lecture was entitled “Reversing the Tragedy of Universal Basic Education Implementation in Nigeria,” was attended by members of the academic community from both within and outside the OOU.

The lecturer identified non-enforcement of the prescribed sanctions on erring parents as partly responsible for the inability of the country to fully realise the UBE’s objectives.

He lamented that the trend has continued because there has not been any known record yet of parents that were punished according to the Act for not sending their children/wards to school for the compulsory, universal and free basic education.

He further lamented that rather than enrol such innocent and neglected children in school, a number of the erring parents have resorted to subjecting them to child labour and turning them into domestic servants or hawkers.

He warned that if the various punishments stipulated by the UBE Act on punishing erring parents and guardians remained unenforced, the country’s resolve to universalise basic education and make it available to all its citizens in order to “achieve the desired 100 per cent literacy rate within the shortest possible time” would be defeated.

He said: “The issues of out of school children and child labour have been linked to the workability pattern of UBE Act in terms of implementation and enforcement. The Act prescribed punishments for erring parents or guardians who failed to enroll their children for Basic Education.

“However, no one has been so punished despite astonishing evidence and statistics showing high percentage of out of school children, dropout rates and child labour.”

He decried the abandonment of the practice of appointing education officers for the purpose of surveillance and arrest of children of school age found roaming about or hawking when they ought to be in school, saying it had made the offending parents to keep stalling the efforts of the governments at reducing the nation’s level of illiteracy.

He advised that education officers’ role should be reactivated to compel erring parents and guardians to do the needful or face the prescribed sanctions.

Adeyemi also suggested the establishment of Neighborhood Alert Group (NAG) in communities, towns and cities to serve as informants to Education Officers or relevant authorities on out of school children and people engaging in child labour to enhance execution of appropriate action on the suspects.