By Familugba Victor
The Executive Director of Seed Care and Support Foundation, Mrs Olanrewaju Oniyitan, on Tuesday, emphasized on the need to call for a state of emergency in Nigeria's educational sector due to the alarming numbers of out-of-school children.
Oniyitan made this known at the
launch of Seed Care & Support Foundation and inaugural conference held at
the Lagos State Capital, Ikeja.
Seed, started as a project in 2016
but now fully registered as a non-profit organization in Nigeria is set to
ensure that the least of Nigerians get educated.
Speaking to newsmen on plans put in
place by the foundation to ensure that all Nigerians get educated. The Founder
said,
"One thing we need to note,
accept and acknowledge is that the government cannot do this alone. In Lagos
state where we are, we have just about 1,700 public schools but we have over
20,000 private schools and most of these schools, about 60 percent of them are
low-fee private schools, serving children from low-income communities, even in
communities where you will not find any
public school at all and so it is critical for us to know that for us to
achieve education for all, SDG4, we will work with the affordable non-state
sector (these low-fee private schools)
to achieve education for all".
Immediate Past Commissioner, Lagos
State Ministry of Education, Mrs Folashade Adefisayo advised parents whose
children are deprived free education due to unavailability of government school
in their communities to opt for low-fee schools.
"Free education schools would
have been a first point of call for them but unfortunately they are not enough
of them in many communities. So they have to go to the low-fee school in the
community. There are schools that have been setup by a lot of Nigerians
charging lowest possible fee. They are available to school children in many
communities" she said.
Responding to questions on the
alarming school fees of some private owned schools in Nigeria. She said that
they need funds to keep their business running.
"It's clear that the number one
thing about education that we cannot shy away from is funding. There must be
adequate funds. How do private owned schools get funds? They have to charge
fees to enable them pay teachers.
"Teachers must be paid, they too
deserve to be able to rent a house, live a life, marry, have children. So, they
must be paid a living wage. And to pay them a living wage, you have to charge
school fees. So, it's a question of funding, whichever way you look at it,
funding is so critical" she added.
Advisory Chair, Seed Care &
Support Foundation, Mrs Abosede Paul-Obameso described the founder of the
foundation as a drop in a very mighty ocean.
She called on those in helms of
affairs in educational sector to leave their offices to see for themselves what
is happening in the community. According to Abosede, this will facilitate a
round-table discussion to determine what to be done to resolve challenges in
the sector.
"A lot policy makers need to
leave their offices to see what is happening in the communities. Then we can
all come back to organize a round-table discussion to determine what needs to
be done to resolve challenges in the sector. It is interesting that a lot of
work is being done by the government but the key question is, is it reaching
the right place? It is easy to design programmes when you know what the real
issues are"
Other dignitaries include; Omodan
Dare, represented Honorable Commissioner, Lagos State Ministry of Basic and
Secondary Education, Mr Jamiu Alli-Balogun, Managing Director, Yellow Tamarind
productions, Isabella Adediji and host of others.
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