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…Laments high out-of-school children’s rate in Nigeria
From Lateef Dada, Osogbo
Professor of Early Childhood Education, Mrs Hannah Ajayi, has lamented that childhood right to education is trampled upon in Nigeria and called for urgent measures to address the menace.
Professor Ajayi who delivered the 404th inaugural lecture of the Obafemi Awolowo University on the topic, “Give me my childhood: Lamentation of the zero to eight years,” decried the increasing rate of out-of-school children.
“With 2025 statistics, 272 million children are out-of-school globally, Nigeria accounts for 18.3 million which means childhood right to education is trampled upon in Nigeria,” she said, adding, “Even those who are in school could hardly read or write their names at the completion of primary education due to poor educational policy.”
Ajayi, who is a lecturer in the Institute of Education of OAU, Ile-Ife, posited that there is need for reconstruction of childhood for clearer understanding and value in the contemporary term.
Her words: “Children can make personal decision as early as possible. It behooves on adults to guide the children and not to force their opinions on children.
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“Children should be allowed to engage in decision making because it enhances their cognitive, emotional and moral development. This is not indulgence but helping a child to have a balanced development by being responsive, consistent and using discipline as supportive measure.”
She submitted that childhood lamentation is to everyone, parents, teachers, school owners, curriculum planners, the government and even researchers to give attention salient issues that would enhance holistic development of children.
“Childhood cries for respect of their uniqueness, love, opportunity to voice out what is on their mind and to be listened to. Childhood cries for an enabling an environment where they are safe, secure and nurture.
“Childhood cries for developmentally appropriate pedagogy and assessment that would enhance appropriate decisions on and about them.
“Childhood cries for resources in human and materials that will enhance their physical and emotional well-being, social, moral and ethical values and cognitive growth.
“Let us all join hands to give childhood all it takes to be what they are meant to be. Let us remember that paying attention to childhood is like banking for the future we all desire. Let us invest our time, our kindness and cash into childhood and we will reap in multiple folds if we faint not,” Ajayi said.
