Adesewa Ogunfidodo
Olamitoke Kemi, a 17-year-old girl from Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State, sat outside her family’s mud house beside a canal filled with refuse, peeling cassava to be used as cassava flakes. Despite her love for school, Olamitoke’s parents’ financial constraints forced her to drop out.
Olamitoke kemi( Photo Credit with consent: Adesewa ogunfidodo)
“I feel unhappy whenever I see my mates attend school while I stay back at home,” she said, “Although my parents enrolled me in a tailoring workshop, I usually go farming with them, as it is their major source of livelihood, which they use to cater for me and my five siblings.”
Olamitoke’s absence from school led to low self-esteem. “I faced discrimination among my peers, those I once attended school with. Most times, I hide whenever I see my mates coming back from school.” She narrated how she once attended AUD Secondary School, Akungba, but her parents could no longer afford her school fees at SSS1 leading to her dropout.
Musa Rhodiya( Phot credit with consent: Adesewa Ogunfidodo)
Similarly, Musa Rhodiya, a former JSS1 student at AUD Grammar School, Akungba-Akoko, explained how financial impediments and being forced to go to the farm with her parents stopped her from furthering her academic pursuits.
“I live with my parents, and after obtaining my first School Leaving Certificate, I proceeded to Junior Secondary School but stopped due to financial issues. My parents are small-scale farmers and could not afford my school fees,” Rhodiya narrated.
Parent refused to speak out of shame
In a bid to get some of the affected family members, parent especially, to speak on the issue, all refused to speak out as they see this as a sense of shame and parental failure. But one major factor the writer observed is traceable to lack of financial capacity or inability of higher percentage of the concerned to meet associated demands of keeping their female students in school
School dropout rates on high toll in Ondo state and Nigeria, official warned
In 2023, UNICEF estimated the total number of out-of-school children in Nigeria to be 20.2 million, with one in three children out of school. Across geopolitical zones, the North-east recorded 1.16m (67%), North-west 2.10m (63%), North-central 850k (46%), South-south 466k (29%), South-west 486k (24%), and South-east 210k (18%) rates of secondary school dropout.
In Ondo State, 240,000 children are out of school, according to the Ondo State Universal Basic Education Board. “This is alarming, and it’s not only happening in Ondo State; it’s a problem in other states of the federation,” said Mr. Victor Olabimtan, chairman of SUBEB.
Victor Olabimitan, Chairman, Ondo State Universal basic Education
School Dropouts or Early School Leaving (ESL) is defined as students’ absence from official certification or minimal credentials signifying the completion of mandatory education due to abandonment of the long-term process voluntarily or involuntarily.
Reasons for Early School Leaving
A senior lecturer at Adekunle Ajasin University, Dr. S.O. Ajimisan attributed harsh economic realities and lack of financial assistance as the major cause of dropout among students. “Students’ drop out of school could also be due to parents’ demise, struggle for survival, laziness, bad influence, natural disasters, peer pressure, and greediness, as well as lost hope in the system of government,” he said.
Globally, students who drop out of school can be categorized into four clusters: school-related, job-related, family-related, and community-related issues.. A study by Frenden Berg and RugIls (2007) identified twenty-four factors under the family cluster, three factors under the community cluster, and twelve factors under the school cluster.
The dropout syndrome has affected many students, including Olamitoke and Rhodiya. “Some of our friends have been forced into early marriage. A few work on the farm with their parents, some are stuck with unwanted pregnancies, while few have enrolled as apprentices or forced to hard labour,”
Rhodiya explained. “I run menial jobs for people within the community in exchange for food and money, especially when my parents do not have food to give to me and my siblings. Sometimes, I help people fetch water, and wash their clothes and plates for a little token,” she said.
Effect of Early School Leaving (ESL)
on Children and Society ESL presents daunting circumstances for adolescents, including social stigma, fewer job opportunities, lower salaries, and a higher probability of involvement in criminal activities. In Nigeria, the dropout syndrome has contributed negatively to educational wastage, increased unemployment, reduction in economic earnings, low-paced national development, reduced literacy rates, and a non-innovative system.
What the law says about the right to education
The Provisions on the Right to Education in Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria have been made justiciable by domestic laws such as the Universal Basic Education Act and case law. UNESCO’s Convention Against Discrimination in Education (CADE, 1960) defined education as “all types and levels of education, including access to education.The standard and quality of education, and the conditions under which it is given.”
There is also the domestication of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) adopted as the Child Rights Act in 2003. This law was effected throughout the Nigeria Federation but only 23 states have enacted it into state laws.
Experts’ views on way out of early school leaving (ESL)
Measures can be taken to reduce the number of students dropping out of school. These include making financial donations to students in need, orientation in rural areas about the usefulness of education, and regular guidance and counselling for secondary school students.
The Child Employment advocate, Dr Ajimisan said, “To enable child education and empowerment, the government, NGOs, religious bodies, politicians, and well-to-do individuals have roles to play by putting up scholarship programs for indigenes and the less privileged.
They can also visit schools to counsel and encourage students facing difficulties in school. Also, parents should keep advising their wards and should also stand in for their children,” he said.
#Adesewa Ogunfidodo, a campus journalist and 2024 campus Journalism fellow of Africa Foundation for Young Media Professionals sent this story from Ondo State
