By Tony Obiechina, Abuja
Determined to address the thorny issue of out of school children in the country, the Federal Government is proposing to expend a whopping sum of the N3,677 billion under the Alternative School Program (ASP).
The Alternate School Programme is designed to bridge the gap of access to quality education for Out-Of-School-Children (OOSC) in Nigeria. It is a flexible provision of basic education to children without formal access to education that are pursuing: vocational/religious education; economic/market activities; and children without either activity such as children in IDP camps/settlements.
The ASP is a joint programme of the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development (FMHADMSD) and the Federal Ministry of Education (FME). It is part of a wider drive to achieving UN Sustainable Development Goal SDG-4.
The present programme which is different from others before it, is aimed at addressing the underlying socio-economic problems driving the rise of out of school children with the humanitarian intervention of National Social Investment Programmes (NSIP).
One of the main objectives of the ASP, is to “Ensure Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education and Promote Life-long Learning Opportunities for All by the year 2030, with it provision of a more inclusive system of education that seeks to further address literacy inclusiveness among vulnerable children”.
Infact, the overall objective of the ASP is to contribute to the rapid reduction of the number of OOSCs in Nigeria, by providing identified categories of children with access to quality basic education and skills in a way that conventional school systems are not designed to address.
Specifically, the aims and objectives of ASP, include to substantially reduce the number of OOSC in Nigeria; facilitate the effective integration of a basic formal education curriculum where religious education, vocational training/work or economic activities are solely pursued by children; and provide access to inclusive and equitable quality education to OOSCs by taking education to meet the children wherever they may be.
Others are to provide opportunities for the target beneficiaries to develop life supporting skills from vocational training to engender meaningful contribution to society; and Foster tolerance, unity, and integration of all children with diverse socio-economic backgrounds.
Targeted as beneficiaries of the programme are, children engaged in any form of economic activity/labour for instance ‘market children’, occasioned by poverty and without access to regular formal education; children from poor/vulnerable homes without access to regular formal education; and kids in the Almajiri system without access to regular formal education.
Equally, the ‘girl-child’ without access to formal education; street children without access to regular formal education; kids in correctional facilities without access to formal education; and victims of insurgency and/or social and environmental dislocation without access to regular formal education; as well those in IDP Camps without access to regular formal education are also targeted.
To set the ball rolling, the National Steering Committee of the ASP in April 2021, inaugurated the Technical Working Group and tasked it with transforming the aims of the programme into functional objectives and creating a plan for implementing the programme across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
Its terms of reference include among others to undertake all other works and assignments as directed by the ASP-NSC to ensure successful implementation and impacts of the programme on Nigerians.
After considering their terms of reference, the TWG decided to organise themselves across three (3) Sub-Committees, namely
Sub-Committee Planning;
Implementation; Monitoring, Evaluation and Data Management which were tasked with identifying areas of focus and to determine how their functions would be undertaken in the nationwide roll-out of the ASP.
Accordingly, enumeration and documentation of 50% of the total OOSC population by 2023; and Engaging 50% of OOSC population into the ASP by 2023.
These wider programme objectives are themselves broken down into component objectives and associated activities in furtherance of Planning Implementation and Monitoring & Evaluation.
At the kick off of the pilot scheme of the programme recently at Gangare in Jos, Plateau state, the representative of the Chairman, Northern Governors Forum, Mr Julius Bawa addressed artisans, caterers, resource persons, mallams and cleaners during the capturing of out of school children in Plateau State.
Similar programmes took place simultaneously in Dala community, Kano; and Maiduguri, the three pilot centres in the North; Rumuelumeni community, Port Harcourt, Rivers State; Obiagu community, Enugu State, Makoko community, Lagos state and Karu in the Federal Capital Territory.
*Mr Julius Bawa (Right), representing the Chairman, Northern Governors Forum, Barrister Simon Lalong of Plateau State addressing participants during the kick off of the Pilot Program in Gangere, Jos.
