FG to jail parents
who refuse to enrol their children in school
The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, has said that Nigeria
will soon implement a policy to prosecute parents who refused to enrol their
children of school age in schools across the country.
Adamu made this known in Abuja on Monday while addressing
newsmen during the 9th edition of the Weekend Ministerial briefing, NAN
reports.
He said parents who sabotage efforts of the government in
reducing the number of out-of-school children would soon be criminalised and
would be made to face the wrath of the law.
“Unless the issue of parents who refused their children
going to school is made a crime, and we start jailing parents, the menace of
out of school children will not be resolved.
“There are many who are still working behind culture,
religion.
“So the ministry is to effect this policy so that any parent
whose child of school age refuses to take them to school will be jailed,’’ he said.
Pediatrician sexually assaults 31 children
Pediatrician sexually assaults 31 children
Speaking on matching grant and other intervention funds for
basic education in Nigeria, the minister said a total of N350 billion had been
expended on the sub-sector as against the N360 billion spent by the previous
administration.
“In the six years preceding the Buhari Administration,
between 2009 and 2014, the Federal Government spent about N360 billion worth of
intervention on Basic Education covering textbooks, teacher professional
development, construction of classrooms and library resources among others,” he
said.
Adamu emphasised that corruption and lack of political will
from state governments were among other reasons responsible for the collapse of
basic education across the states.
“Having come to this painful conclusion, the Federal Government
decided to deduct from source, part of the last tranche of the Paris Club
refund from all the states that have not been able to access their monies from
(UBEC).
“If this attitude of deliberate refusal on the part of
states to provide counterpart funding for basic education continues, then the
Federal Government will have no choice than to sustain its strategy of
deducting counterpart funding of states percentage from source,’’ he said.