2021, STAKEHOLDERS FORUM ON OUT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN

STAKEHOLDERS FORUM ON OUT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN, 2021

ADDRESSING THE OUT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN CRISIS IN NIGERIA: STRENGTHENING MASS LITERACY / NON-FORMAL EDUCATION SUB SECTOR ACROSS THE 36 STATES & FCT

Concept note

INTRODUCTION

“Literacy has become a phenomenon that generates changes and a technology that holds a key to other technologies” Omolewa (1981)

Several researchers have identified three major costs to education; tuition cost, cost of being in school and the opportunity cost of being in school. In Nigeria, though tuition is free, meeting the other costs has hindered access to a vast majority of Nigeria’s school aged children and has excluded over 10.3m children and young adults (ages 6-16yrs representing about 23% of school aged children population in Nigeria) from accessing the right to formal education (UBEC:2019)

A recent study conducted by Life Builders’ Initiative (2021) among 1,284 out-of-school children and their parents/care givers identified 21 reasons why children are not in school. The reasons advanced ranged from:

I. Extreme poverty causing children to be hungry at school.

II. Violence and crisis in many regions of the country.

III. Lack of children and parents’ interest/confidence in the ability of the school system to deliver self-reliance.

Furthermore, increasing social vices such as insurgency, internal displacements, kidnapping of school children, banditry and militancy in the country have compounded the out-of-school children situation in Nigeria.

Addressing this situation will require a multi-sectoral approach and the collaboration of many state and non-state actors such as state security apparatus, humanitarian and medical corps, social and development service providers in partnership with the education stakeholders.

JUSTIFICATION

Mass literacy, adult and non-formal education is an integral part of the Nigeria education program. The National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non Formal Education (NMEC) was established June 26th 1990 mainly to cater for several categories of people who could not learn under the condition of formal education. Mass literacy and non-formal education provisions for out-of-school learner is the main mandate of (NMEC).

Non Formal Education is pragmatic and does not require any formality/structured hierarchy; it does not need an elaborate physical structure, regimented course curriculum, testing nor grading. It runs a participatory learning system, an open ended educational system with no restriction placed on learner’s participation due to age, time and place of instruction. It is result oriented, with a flexible and purpose designed curriculum.

Formal education, on the other hand, is planned, deliberate and structured hierarchically. Scheduled COSTS are incurred and paid regularly; it has a chronological grading system, with a syllabus and subject-oriented structure. The child is taught by the teachers. It is age, time, and location dependent.

Non-formal education bypasses the bottlenecks to learning created by formal education, thereby making it a viable option for curbing the out-of-school children predicament in Nigeria. It is with this understanding that the LBI is convoking the 2021 stakeholder’s forum, to sustain the discussion on addressing the out-of-school children crisis in Nigeria by strengthening mass literacy through the non-formal education sub sector across the 36 states and the FCT.

PARTICIPATION

The Stakeholders Forum is a two day hybrid event, it is a multi-sectoral conversation, to develop a roadmap towards the delivery of the objectives of this year’s conversation focus. We shall be welcoming 4 panels comprising Policy makers (executive) drawn from the Federal, State and local government ministries and Parastatals of education, social development, health, and security, and law makers from the tiers of government. We shall also be hosting participants from the Academia, Private sector players with interest in education sector financing, the Private School proprietors, NGO led by CSACEFA, the traditional institutions, and the international Development partners. As usual, we will also have in attendance the beneficiaries of the Life builders Initiative Program as well as a representation of out of school children and their parents to provide a firsthand experience to the conversation.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES OF THE 2021 STAKEHOLDERS’ FORUM

1. To sensitize the executive and legislative arms of government of the need for improved budgetary allocation to the non-formal education sector.

2. To challenge the paradigm that formal education is the only avenue to get children and young adults to learning. Thereby re-emphasizing non formal education as a credible alternative to addressing the out of school children crisis in Nigeria

3. To provide a multi-sectorial opportunity to exchange information, ideas and strategies to enable LBI with our partners achieve the set goal: providing education for additional 20,000 (twenty thousand) out of school children annually in each of the36 states and FCT.

PROPOSED DISCUSSION TOPICS

1. Funding and Private Sector Participation in the provision of mass literacy.

2. Strengthening Policy, Advocacy, Partnership and Legislation for Mass literacy

3. Alternate School Program; Promoting Inclusiveness, Certification and Standards.

DATE: WEDNESDAY 17TH & THURSDAY 18TH NOVEMBER, 2021

TIME: 10am – 3pm Daily

VENUE: HYBRID MEETING,

Join @ www.lbistakeholdersforum.org

Physical: Invitation card admits @ Radio House, Abuja

The Life Builders Initiative (LBI) Model

The Life Builders Initiative education model was born out of passion and a humanitarian drive targeted at out-of-school children in poor neighbourhoods and Internally Displaced Persons camps in 8 locations within the FCT and the neighbouring states in 2013. A needs assessment in the community revealed the root causes of the community’s children being out of school: Poverty, hunger, identity, access to school and healthcare, employable skills and social inclusion. A tested model that can address these needs was developed that included a Schools Without Walls (SWW) project, children scholarship, basic medical service, school feeding project, employable skills training and societal integration. The School Without Walls’ (A non formal learning centre devoid of all the bottlenecks of a formal school) has registered 1,620 students in the last 8 years, with 608 children currently attending the school (SWW Early Childhood Education and Basic 1-6 programs) while the progress of 623 absorbed into formal school (Basic 7-9) system is been tracked. 80 young adults have grown to become adult entrepreneur consequent on the skills acquisition training of the LBIModel.

CONCLUSION

It is no gainsaying that the out-of-school children crisis in Nigeria is a challenge. However, The LBI is resilient in her resolve to attempt proffering a sustainable solution. The LBI stakeholder’s forum is yet another attempt to answer these and many more emerging questions. Let's invite all concerned to the forum.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

National Press Center, Herbert Macaulay Way, Abuja, Nigeria