IA Foundation tasks FG on out-of-school children

A UK charity organization, Ibironke Adeagbo Foundation has charged the Federal Government and the Ministry of Education to prioritize proffering strategic solutions to the growing statistics of out-of-school-children in Nigeria. She decried that education is in a state of emergency. The charity organization which is also registered in Nigeria further called on all education NGOs and civil society organizations to combine resources, experience and network to combat the menace of out of school children, rather than working in silos.

The Chief Executive Officer and Founder of the Foundation, Mrs. Ibironke Adeagbo made the call while delivering a guest lecture at a virtual event organized by the Institute for National Transformation Nigeria over the weekend. She urged the ministry of education to be more vocal about the issue until significant attention is paid to it in policy formulation, budgeting, funding as well as local and international partnerships.

Adeagbo also charged the government to create an enabling environment for nongovernmental organizations that work in the education space to thrive and depoliticize the sector so that well-meaning organizations and individuals can form strategic alliances to complement the effort in ensuring the over 10.5 million out of school children get a chance to access quality education. She noted that education is a fundamental right of every child and it is the responsibility of the government to ensure their rights are not violated.

In her lecture, Mrs. Adeagbo, who is a chartered accountant highlighted increased advocacy, increment in budgetary allocation to education, economic empowerment for parents, deployment of educational technology, multi-sector collaboration, improvement of school security and safety, upgrading of school infrastructure, and standard, retraining of in-service teachers, grassroot reorientation, and strategic education policies as suitable solutions that can help eliminate the barriers to accessing quality education in Nigeria.
Commenting on the issue of Almajiri, Mrs. Adeagbo urged the government to enforce compulsory inclusion of formal education into the almajiri system so that the children will not miss out of quality education because of their religions.

“At IA-Foundation, our organizational effort to reduce the barriers to access to quality education are captured by six thematic areas including economic, learning resources and infrastructure, insecurity and conflict, gender and physically challenged, capacity building and advocacy. We have provided bursary and scholarship to many children. We have set up endowment funds to enable these children go to school. We have donated different scholastic materials, e-learning devices, installed borehole for a community school that lack access to clean water; visited IDP camp, school of the blind and school of the disabled. We have organized outreaches at Ajegunle, Oshodi, where we picked children from the street, met with their parents and sponsored them back to school”, she added.

“Nigeria’s children are Nigeria’s future. An attack on their lives, safety and education is an attack on the nation’s prosperity. Let’s be patriotic and visionary by sponsoring out-of-school children to get educated. Yesterday’s out-of-school children have become today’s bandits. With 10.5 million out-of-school children, we could be storing trouble for our nation’s tomorrow. At IA-Foundation, we care about the future of Nigeria and will continue to ensure we enable, enhance and equip lives of indigent children with quality education”, she continued.
While responding to a newsman who also attended the event on what makes IA-Foundation unique, Mrs. Adeagbo reiterated that as a chartered accountant, she ensured that there is transparency and integrity in all what the Foundation does. She also told the audience that in addition to providing bursary, the Foundation pairs the beneficiaries to a trained mentor to provide psycho-social support, guidance and counselling until they complete their secondary education. She added that the bursary application forms are available on the Foundation’s website www.ia-foundation.org and can be filled by anybody. Once they meet our eligibility criteria, the Foundation will ensure that such a child is sponsored back to school and supported through the period. She shared a success story of the first beneficiary of the Foundation, Grace, who has successfully completed her university education and currently serving the nation as a Youth Corp member.
She reiterated the Foundation’s readiness to work with individuals, corporate sector organizations, nonprofit organizations and government agencies in any state across the federation who are passionate about reducing the barriers to access to quality education in Nigeria.