Out-of-school Children: LEDAP Tasks Kaduna Govt Over Ban On Hawking

To check the menace of out-of-school children in Kaduna State, the Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP) with support from Malala Fund has called on the state government to effectively implement the ban on street hawking.

LEDAP believes that if fully enforced, the state government would take school age children off the streets.

The group made the call during an engagement meeting with journalists on promoting basic education rights in Kaduna where a series of issues that would help in achieving the desired goals and compliment the government’s efforts towards advancing basic education were deliberated upon.

LEDAP reckoned that the state government banned hawking as a measure of getting children of school age off the streets and charged the education marshals with the mandate of reducing truancy.

“Regardless, we cannot but urge the government to take further steps to evaluate the effectiveness of these volunteer marshals, strengthen their mandate to discharge their duties, and most importantly implement the basic provisions of the UBE Act and eradicate all forms of hidden fees demanded by schools in the state. This will not only mitigate high school dropout rates, but also will in the long run, advance the development indices of the state, and sustain the gains made by both the state and development partners such as LEDAP and Malala Fund.

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In similar vein, LEDAP is encouraging education officials and stakeholders not to rest on their oars in guaranteeing access to free, safe, basic and quality education for children in the state and further urged the government to commit more resources to education through increased budgeting and funding in a gender sensitive and inclusive manner.

Addressing the journalists after the meeting on the right to free compulsory, safe, quality and basic education in Kaduna State, LEDAP programme director Pamela Okoroigwe who was represented by the state coordinator, Michael Aboh commended the state government for advancing basic education and urged her not to lose sight of the overarching goal of reducing the number of out-of-school children in the state.

In 2017, LEDAP obtained a groundbreaking judgment in the case of LEDAP vs Federal Ministry of Education & Anor where the court declared free, compulsory and universal basic education and enforceable and justiciable human rights. A statement that also affirms that every Nigerian has the constitutional right to free and quality basic Education.

She said, “As part of LEDAP’s efforts to bridge the yawning gap in access to education, particularly in Northern Nigeria, LEDAP with the support of Malala Fund has since 2018 been advocating for the implementation of the Universal Basic Education Act 2004 and increased access to free quality, safe basic education for children in four northern states which constitute the over 13.5 million out-of-school children in Nigeria.

“In recognition of the barriers to education in Nigeria, ranging from but not limited to poor implementation of education laws, such as the UBE Act, insecurity and conflict situations, socio-cultural and religious dispositions, and funding challenges, LEDAP has since flagging of it’s awareness campaign on free and safe basic education supported governments efforts in its project states to develop guidelines for the implementation of the UBE Act and state level laws where applicable.

“It further help to reviewed education policies in relevant states, trained education officials on the provisions of the UBE Act, developed advocacy tools such as the ‘right to education factsheet’ to draw critical attention to issues in the education sector, and ultimately, galvanized support for the enrollment of over 2500 out-of-school children in the project state.”