The group which made the announcement in a statement issued on Thursday demanded that the Nigerian government must save public education, stressing that the status quo is a potential threat to national security.
An education rights group, Save Public Education Campaign, Nigeria (SPECN) has announced the cancellation of its 2024 Children’s Day Celebration over the plight of 18.3 million out-of-school Nigerian children.
The group which made the announcement in a statement issued on Thursday demanded that the Nigerian government must save public education, stressing that the status quo is a potential threat to national security.
The group described as a development disaster, the new report released by the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF), which showed that Nigeria currently ranks 1st in Out-of-School Children globally.
The SPECN said that Nigerian authorities and all stakeholders must work immediately and assiduously to reverse the trend of the growing out-of-school children.
The group said that this year's May 27 international Children's Day Celebrations should be immediately cancelled in view of what it described as tragic revelation, noting that there was nothing to celebrate about when almost 20 million Nigerian children are out there on the streets, “gruelling.”
Reacting to the report released by the UN's Country Office in Nigeria on Wednesday, the Convener of the group, Comrade Vivian Bello, said that the report is another tragic reminder of not only the crisis in Nigeria’s educational sector of which the government by its actions and inactions is responsible for, “but importantly also, the mis-placement of priorities the country suffers from.
Bello said that the outcome of the large number of the out-of-school children in the country was what was merely reflected by the report.
Bello pointed out that one did not need to look far to see that the combination of multiple negative factors including inadequate budgetary provisions, poor planning, insecurity, growing household poverty, cultural and religious beliefs and practices amongst others, which she said have ultimately brought Nigeria to the current abysmal global ranking.
She added that it was unfortunate that even countries at war still fared better than Nigeria in the index.
Bello said that "Occupying this grim position globally on Out-of-School Children is indeed the time to take a hard look at our development aspirations as a country side by side outcomes as these and realize that if anything, this is an alarm bell that should not by any means be ignored.
“This is so because of the danger that doing otherwise poses to the country and to everyone in it.
“Harnessing the teeming Country's youthful population and potentials can only be done by effective Education otherwise this population becomes a veritable threat to national security and national development too.
“The country must therefore re-order its priorities, see the education of its young population as a critical national asset and treat it so accordingly".
The group recalled that it had several times pushed for the proper funding of education in Nigeria through adequate budgetary allocations that meet global standard thresholds as well as the enforcement of the Child's Rights Act, which imposes compelling mandate on both the government as well as parents to avail every Nigerian child of his right to free and qualitative basic education.
The group therefore charged the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, to rise to his responsibilities and swing into action in implementing the Child's Rights Act, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Act and other legal instruments already emplaced towards not only bringing Nigeria out of the doldrums of the potent danger that the status quo poses but also bringing about positive transformative outcomes for the Country's educational and developmental aspirations.