By Alade Adisa
With Nigeria rated as having the highest number of Out-School-Children, OSC, in the world, with estimate at about 20.5 million, the figure is not coming down soon, as the harsh economic condition in the country is aggravating the situation.
This is just as the rate of Learning Poverty is also not receding.
The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) defines learning poverty as a child’s inability to read and understand simple text by age 10.
The Learning Poverty Indicator (LPI) is used to measure learning poverty. The LPI combines the percentage of children who haven’t achieved minimum reading proficiency with the percentage of children who are out of school.
In low- and middle-income countries, 53% of children cannot read and understand a simple story by the end of primary school. In poor countries, the level is as high as 80%.
Learning poverty threatens countries’ efforts to build human capital and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Poverty forces many families to choose which of their children to send to school. Girls often miss out due to belief that there’s less value in educating a girl than a boy.
However, with the harsh economic condition in the country, the situation is getting dire, as even teachers are not finding things easy.
The Executive Chairman, Sokoto State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Alhaji Umaru Nagwari Tambuwal, said the current hash economic condition and poverty are negatively affecting teaching and learning in public schools.
He said the recent hike in prices of petrol and rising inflation also added to the suffering of teachers and students who bear the brunt, hence increased depression and lack of absolute concentration by teachers and pupils in classes.
“There are lots of factors.including current economic situation in the country which some times hinders teachers going to schools early, Places where you used to pay N200 or N300 as transport has now tripled to as much as N1000 or even more.
“Majority of our teachers in public schools have families and other dependants to cater for. How much is their salaries before now? Nagwari Tambuwal asked.
“ The current situation is greatly affecting teachers and learning atmosphere throughout the whole nation. The issue is biting hard in the basic education sector.”
