To cushion the effect of the high cost of academic materials and increase in the cost of education, Serene Early-Trobb Concepts (Initiative), a nonprofit and non-governmental organization dedicated to the protection and rights of children, recently distributed free educational materials to indigent pupils in Lagos.
The distribution, which benefitted about 200 pupils from Ojota Nursery/Primary School, GRA Nursery and Primary School and Emmanuel Nursery and Primary School in Ojota area of Lagos, was also part of the activities to commemorate the organization’s annual Education Support Inclusivity project.
In a statement by the Founder and Executive Director, Serene Early-Trobb Concepts, Rhoda Olorunfemi, said the exercise was aimed at making learning easy for the pupils who cannot afford writing materials, which has made some of them drop out of school.
Ms Olorunfemi said, “despite that primary education is officially free and compulsory, most children are still out of school due to poverty. According to UNICEF Nigeria, about 10.5 million of Nigeria’s children aged 5-14 years are not in school, we want to encourage children to keep learning and stay back at school.”
She added that “this means one in five children in Nigeria are out of school, the free distribution of exercise books and other writing materials are necessary to support children to remain in school.”
Highlighting the cause of increase in out-of-school children in the country, Ms. Olorunfemi said “apart from conflict, gender, attacks on education, distance from school, child labour, and child marriage which hinder children’s education, poverty takes more than half of the percentage of the reason why parents cannot afford to put and sustain children in school.
“We have examples of hunger, high cost of education materials, lack of school fees, transportation fare among other are discouraging factors children can’t stay at school.”
She thereafter appealed to the government to put more effort into ensuring children stay in school while working towards how more would be enrolled.
The Executive Director also explained that the first phase of the distribution exercise covered about 200 pupils among the three schools, and the organization aims to meet the target of 500 beneficiaries in the year 2024.
She called on Nigerians to show their support to ensure that out-of-school children are enrolled in school.