Our children are out-of-school over… Bauchi communities lament

Communities in Alkaleri Local Government Area of Bauchi State, have decried the lack of school infrastructure and poverty which is denying their children access to educational pursuit.

Most of the people who spoke to a team of Journalists who were on a field visit to the area to assess the impact of UNICEF intervention lamented that the environment is not conducive to allow for sending their wards to school.

The Residents of the communities were unanimous, attributing dilapidated school structures, lack of school facilities and poverty as factors contributing to the low enrollment of children in the schools.

The Village Head of Gumchi Guni, Ali Sarkin Shanu lamented that the only school in the area has become dilapidated over the years and no effort has been made to repair it to allow the children to go to school.

According to him, their children don’t go to school during the rainy season due to the dilapidation of the school building saying that the roof has been blown off thereby making learning not conducive.

“The structure of the school is dilapidated, there is no water storage system, no toilet facilities, and no tables and chairs for learning. During the season, our children do not go to school because the conditions of learning are not conducive for them. During that period, they go to the farm” he said.

The traditional ruler however assured that he is ready to embark on mobilization to make the children return to school as soon as the environment is made conducive for teaching and learning.

He called on the state government and other implementing partners to come to the aid of the community by reconstructing the structure of the school, providing facilities for the school as well as adequate manpower.

At Sabon Gari, one of the Community leaders, Bala Abubakar lamented the issue of out-of-school children in the area saying that it is becoming alarming, particularly among the girls who are seen hawking along the road.

He blamed both government and parents saying that the schools are not in good condition for learning due to lack of teachers and dilapidated structure while the parents are leveraging on that not to send their children to school but to hawk.

For 40 years old Dahiru Musa Masori, the issue of out-of-school children has become a menace in the area which needs a very strong political will and the concerned authorities to check.

Some of the women spoke with Journalists in the Masori community on why the enrollment of children in schools was low, saying that poverty is the main reason many parents cannot send their children to school.

Hajiya Lami Ibrahim, a resident in the community, said that sending children to school was financially demanding on the family, adding that they have resorted to sending the children to street hawking in order to provide for the family.

“We are basically farmers in this community and depend on farm proceeds to provide food for the family, but that cannot sustain the family for long. We cannot afford to send our children to school because it is financially demanding, so we rather send them to sell things in order to provide extra income for the family,” she said.

Aisha Mohammed, a mother of six children and a second wife in Gumchiguni corroborated Lami’s view, saying that poverty is a major factor in why there are many out-of-school children in the community.

According to her, “Parents cannot afford to buy school uniforms, textbooks and other school demands because there is no money for that. We are peasant farmers who do not make much from farming. There are a lot of competing needs in the family like feeding, healthcare and others. Some of our husbands do not have a legitimate source of livelihood, so how can they train a child in school when they don’t have the means to do that”.

While reacting to the development, Korijo Buba Umar- Director of School Services in the Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), said that from the assessment in the communities visited, there is a positive development as there is improvement in the enrollment of children in schools in the community.

According to him, “Currently, the number of out-of-school children in the state has dropped drastically because there was a lot of intervention by the state government and other partners In the education sector which I believe will keep getting better with continued efforts in the sector.”

However, according to reports from Bauchi Annual Schools Census (BASC) data 2023, the state has 1,269,228 enrollment of primary school children and over 5,000 enrollment of students in junior secondary schools.

In Alkaleri local government area, there is 67,081 enrollment of pupils and students in primary and secondary schools.