Kunle Adelabu
The Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asipa Kaoli Olusanya, has called for the declaration of a state of emergency in education sector in the country.
Kaoli, who is a former Commissioner for Agriculture & Cooperatives in Lagos State and a former lecturer, speaking with THE IMPACT during the commissioning of three classrooms with furniture that he provided to support the school founded by Odo – Kekere community, feared that lack of educational facilities is forcing more children out of school.
He expressed sadness over the statistics that put the number of children that are out of school in Nigeria at 10million, stating that the country’s future might be in jeopardy if something urgent is not done to address the situation.
“In Nigeria as a whole, it is claim that 10million children are out of school. If you have 10million children who are supposed to be in school but are not there, not as a result of their fault or that of their parents, but because of inadequacies in term of infrastructures that are available and infrastructure deficit that could not provide enough space for children to go to school”, he said.
“If the government and the good people around do not rise up to provide education for these children, they will turn out to be a menace to the society tomorrow”.
The educationist, who projected that at least, a million out of the 10million children that are out of school in Nigeria may be in Lagos being the centre of activities in the country, called on the government to declare a state of emergency in education sector.
“Imagine if we have 10million children out of school, Lagos State which is the hub centre of all activities in Nigeria, I can project that a minimum of 1million of those 10million children will be in Lagos.
“The results of this are what we are seeing in the society in form of restiveness, social chaos and violence, because the students who are not trained will turn out to be a menace.
“The federal and state governments should declare a state of emergency in the education sector because the number of children that are out of school is alarming and we must take a very drastic measure to mitigate the risks and bridge the gap by providing needed facilities which are more needed in rural areas”, he charged.
