A Twelve Year Old female student in Junior Secondary School, JSS two, Asogwa Peace, wants Nigerian Lawmakers to formulate laws to criminalise government functionaries whose children are not attending public schools as well as enforce the penalty on parents who do not enrol their children in school.
Miss Peace was speaking in Abuja at the presentation of a Seven year research findings on Tracking Basic Education Funds by human development initiative.
Twelve-year old Asogwa Peace is in Basic eight at government junior secondary school Orozo , a suburb of Abuja.
At twelve, she is able to reel out in one breath, the challenges before Nigeria’s Basic Education sub-sector.
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The twelve year old’s presentation forced civil society groups to agree to a legislation to compel government functionaries to send their children and wards to public schools to understand first hand the pains of the likes of Asogwa Peace.
A 7- year research by the Human development initiative, HDi, investigated how basic education Funds were being utilised by states.
Lagos State was one of the focus areas for the investigation which revealed that some contractors deliberately delayed project delivery dates to review contract sum and some others deliver projects outside specifications to the detriment of the Nigerian Child.
The Federal Ministry of Education distanced itself from knocks on UBEC and SUBEB’s snail speed in supervising project delivery at the state levels.
UBEC has consistently accused states of not accessing trapped funds because they are unwilling to provide counterpart funds, but the states have kept insisting that counterpart funds needs to be reviewed downward.
While children like Asogwa Peace understand the dangers of poor Basic Education, stakeholders demand for an education minister who is battle ready to change the narratives for good, from Basic to tertiary level of education
Editor Paul Akhagbemhe
