A solution to the influx of out-of-school children especially in the North of Nigeria should be a must for the government. Education is one sector the government should take seriously to tackle societal problems. There have been many children in the Northern streets hawking, wandering or living in a nomadic life. The government has to rescue them from the street by building more schools and making provisions for the children.
The government of the day has a program for school children tagged ‘one-meal-per day’ used to feed the children. This has led to increase in learning in several parts of the country. In the north, there is a high population so there are children in public schools and Almajiri schools.
There has been an influx of students making the schools over-populated and most are in bad structures. The north, been a border to neighboring countries such as Chad, Niger Republic, Benin Republic, and Togo has made this part over populated by foreigners because of the porous borders. Children from this part of Africa loiter the streets, wander about with no means of survival. This has made the available schools to be over-populated.
Some states in the Federation have started building more schools to accommodate these out-of-school children. These would reduce the rate of unemployment as more teachers would be needed to teach them how to read and write. Other state should therefore take a cue from their counterparts who are already building more schools for these children.
The ‘one-meal-per day’ program would also be an avenue to enrich the farmers who produces the food and also the school caterers. If there is no way to block our borders from foreigners then adequate provisions should be made to take these children out of the streets. If care is not taken these children could cause havoc to the society. The future of the children should be our collective effort. Let do our possible best to save them and the world.