Duration For Admission Process Should Be Review To Enable Enrolment Of Out-Of-School Children-HDI Urges LASG

To ensure inclusive, quality and free education for all in Lagos State, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Human Development Initiative (HDI) has urged Lagos State government to look into the admission processes in order to enable the enrolment of more out-of-school children in the state

News Rain Nigeria reports that this was gathered during a roundtable meeting with Media and CSO, in Yaba area of Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.

Speaking to journalist at the roundtable meeting with Media and CSO,HDI programme Officer, Mr Johnson Ibidapo said government need to be more creative around the timing for reenrolment.

He said; “For some places outside Nigeria, enrolment is all year round, and so if there is a way the government of Lagos state can work with that, whereby there is a system to enrol children who are found out of school every time round the year, it will really solve many problems. Because sometimes when stakeholders come around for enrolment of out-of-school children they get discouraged after being told that admission is over, and they will have to wait until another admission circle comes up”.

“So, I believe that this policy issue is very critical, if they can address it, and the government is innovative around being able to enrol children anytime of the year, I think it will to a large extent solve a big problem”.

Also, on the challenges encountered in areas of monitoring and factors influencing the rate of out-of-school children, the CSOs and journalists agreed that it has been difficult to access schools in order to monitor the utilization of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) funds and developmental projects.

It was noted that some managements of government-owned schools shun the requests of journalists to access schools to document what has been achieved and areas of loopholes that need to be made public.

Another challenge noted to have been responsible for the rate of out-of-school children was that many parents do not know the right offices to approach in order to get their wards to government-owned schools.

Corruption in the admission processes to government-owned schools was also linked to the rate of out-of-school children in Lagos.

It was noted that some schools demand more than the required fee needed for the enrolment of a child.

 

Duration For Admission Process Should Be Review To Enable Enrolment Of Out-Of-School Children-HDI Urges LASG

 

Inadequate data, to monitor enrollment and other development projects, was also listed as one of the challenges that must be tackled to ensure all child gets educated.

However, after listing the challenges, HDI vowed to continue to sensitize parents on how to ensure their children get easy and affordable access to schools in Lagos.

Mrs. Bolanle Dare noted that the organization will also work on models that will make it easy for journalists and school management to work together.

She noted that the role of HDI is not to attack the government or its officials but to ensure that the future of the children are secured through proper education.

Bolanle added that there’s a need for more transparency on the part of government officials and the Lagos community to ensure that the right processes are followed in building the future of children.

She noted that all matters raised will be properly addressed in order to ensure that more children get access to free and quality education.