Education Roadmap: How Government Neglect Threatens Girls’ Access to Early Childhood Education in Akwa Ibom

By Ndifreke Enefiok, Uyo
Early Childhood Care Education (ECCDE) is the foundation of every child’s journey, and a preparatory point for early learners between 3-5 years to develop cognitive and psychomotor skills while preparing to transition into primary school at 6 years, according to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2021 report.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) emphasises that the success of every stage of a child’s education life depends on the quality of early childhood education the child receives. Yet, despite the lifelong benefits of ECCDE, more than 175 million children – nearly half of all pre-primary age children in the world are not enrolled in preschool.
UNICEF explains further that this issue affects children from low-income families who are less likely to get an early education. The organisation highlighted that the failure of the government to invest and provide quality early childhood education denies children the opportunities to reach their potential while robbing the country of the human capital needed to reduce inequalities.
In Akwa Ibom, Faith Okon, a 5-year-old girl from the coastal community of Adadia, Uruan local government, has never seen the wall of a school since her birth. Every morning, especially on the popular Ishiet market day, a big market in her community, she joins her sisters to pick periwinkles at the beach market to sell when they should be in school.
Due to poverty and government neglect, children like Faith, whose parents are low-income earners, are forced to contribute to the household income instead of being in school like their peers in urban areas. They miss out on early education that could empower them to become future leaders.
The economic struggle of low-income families, like that of Faith in Adadia, forces them to prioritise survival over education.
Faith’s mother, Grace Okon, says she could not give the children proper education due to economic poverty, which has crippled her financial power to purchase learning materials, including uniforms, books, and sandals for the children to be enrolled in a school.
The situation is not an isolated one. In Adadia, many young children from low-income families are not in school because their parents cannot afford learning materials or the luxury of affording a private education.
This situation faced by Faith and other children is in contrast to the various claims made by the State government about the free and compulsory education policy.
The government has said school uniforms, books, and sandals are provided for learners in public schools, with no fees charged from pre-primary to secondary school level in every government-owned school. In Adadia and the many schools covered in the cause of this report, the reality glaringly contrasts these claims.
In fact, for girls like Faith and other children, accessing early childhood education is a distant dream that comes with a strangling price beyond their reach.
On December 9, 2024, when TheMail Newspaper visited the community, our reporter found many children like Faith who were not in school or had never seen the walls of a school since birth or missed school often because their parents could not afford the basic educational needs like books or school uniforms.
Findings show the situation is contributing to an alarming rate of school dropouts for girls in poor homes, exacerbating teenage pregnancy, child abandonment, poverty, gender-based violence, and child labour.
The lack of government commitment to addressing the gap in the education sector or providing basic learning materials, school uniforms, and books for children across all schools, as well as quality ECCE facilities beyond paper, makes the situation worse, leading to delayed schooling and inequality in access for girls like Faith.
Our reporter, disguised as a fish seller at about 9:30 a.m. on December 9, 2024, a busy Monday morning, randomly counted over 30 young children between the ages of 3–10 years who were not in school but were picking periwinkle or engaging in menial jobs to make a living under harsh conditions.
These children were either abandoned by their parents, who left for faraway Cameroon in search of greener pastures, left to fend for themselves, or are from very low-income families where survival is a daily struggle.
For another young girl, Joy Effiong, a 10-year-old orphan who cannot read or write, the burden of survival outweighs her quest for education, and the path to accessing education is fraught with barriers. Having lost both parents at a tender age, Joy now fends for herself by picking periwinkle that falls from bags sold to customers to make ends meet and cannot afford the luxury of sending herself to school.
Despite the long hours, her earnings and those of her peers are meagre, ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 naira daily, depending on her luck. She and her peers sell their periwinkle at significantly lower prices, often earning a fraction of the market demand. The revenue barely scratches the surface of their needs, as they have to return to the market every day.
“I want to go to school, but who will feed me if I don’t work daily? Even when my parents were alive, I missed school days often and still had to pick periwinkle,” Joy said with a shaky voice in Ibibio.
A 2020 survey by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment of Nigeria, the NBS, and the Nigeria Child Labour and Forced Labour Report shows that Nigeria has 24 million children between the ages of 5–11 years who are in child labour, while Akwa Ibom State has over one million children aged 5–17 years who are in child labour.
Meanwhile, a young mother of two, Mary Joseph, who earns a living by selling coconuts in the market, shared her dilemma. “I want my children to go to school, but I have not been able to raise enough money to get them uniforms, books, and everything they need because my coconut business is meagre and can barely feed us,” she said.
Mary’s frustration is also shared by many mothers who dream of a good future for their children but are trapped in a cycle of poverty and educational inequality, which has exacerbated the rate of school dropouts and missed school days in Adadia.
“The number you have counted today is nothing compared to what you would see if we were to announce in the market for parents to bring their children who are not in school. The number is troubling, and it makes me wonder why the government keeps looking away from doing the right thing by building good schools and living up to its expectations,” a security official in Adadia, who did not want to be named, told TheMail newspaper.
The Early Childhood Education Crisis
The implication of this neglect of early childhood education by the government is profound and comes with a price for children in Adadia and many other communities in Akwa Ibom State.
Findings show some of the children who finally summon the courage to go to school in most rural areas in Akwa Ibom to learn in overcrowded classrooms, dilapidated structures, lack access to basic learning materials, qualified and well-trained teachers, and a conducive environment, and are taught with an outdated curriculum that impedes learning outcomes.
According to the National Population Commission 2022 Survey data, Akwa Ibom State has a demography of school-age children (projected) at the ECCDE level, with over 900 thousand pupils, both boys and girls, aged 0–5 years.
UBEC’s National Personnel Audit (2022/2023) data further reveals that Akwa Ibom has an ECCDE enrolment of 475,522, the third highest state after Oyo and Kano.
However, the data also shows a good proportion of basic education schools, whether public or private, lack access to the approved basic education curricula. For example, 65.54% of public ECCDEs have no access to the approved ECCDE curriculum.
73% of private ECCDEs reported having access to the government-approved ECCDE curriculum, showing a far better picture than the situation in public ECCDEs.
Similarly, TheMail newspaper findings reveal that ECC enrolment in public schools is significantly low compared to private schools, as many of the public ECC facilities are dilapidated, and lack modern classroom designs, child-friendly furniture, safe play areas, and well-stocked libraries.
A major contributor to the ECC crisis according to our findings is the fishing season, during which children drop out of school to join their parents at the fishing port, missing most of the first and second terms and only resuming during the third term to sit for promotional examinations.
The reality of the ECC crisis is further highlighted in the data from the Akwa Ibom Strategic Education Roadmap (AKSER) 2020–2030, which reveals the state has 903 pre-primary schools and requires an estimated 1,369 pre-primary schools to cater to the 1,135,628 population of children aged 2–4 years, in 2020.
By 2030, the state requires an additional 325 nursery schools to increase pre-primary enrolments to 1,227,975 children and address ECC infrastructural deficits and the out-of-school children menace.
The document reveals LGAs such as Oruk Anam, Okobo, Uyo, Itu, and Ukanafun, covered in this investigation are in a deficit of ECC facilities and currently require an estimated number of nursery schools of 28, 30, 76, and 13, making it a total of 147 ECC facilities to cover the LGAs, respectively.
The Infrastructure Gaps in Early Childhood Education
While the state struggles with a deficit of ECC facilities, some of the existing ones are either dilapidated or not well equipped.
All the schools visited by our reporter showed clear signs of neglect, with many operating in a deplorable state.
The schools had either plain or dirty walls and interactive designs on the walls to aid learning. None of the ECC facilities had a play section or playthings for the young learners.
TheMail Newspaper visited public schools in Oruk Anam, Ukanafun, Okobo, Itu, and Uruan local government areas and observed firsthand the rot and neglect in many public pre-primary schools.
In all the schools and communities, our reporter observed how children are forced to learn in deplorable conditions compared to their peers in better-funded private schools in urban areas.
Many of the schools had no ECC facilities, and learners between the ages of 3–5 years were lumped together in primary one. The only school that has an ECC facility still lumped ECC 1 and 2 into one class due to a lack of adequate classrooms for the learners.

At Government Primary School, Ikot Ntuk, Oruk Anam LGA, the entire school has three classroom blocks. Out of the three, two stood in obvious ruins, and many of the pupils sat on cracked and dusty floors.

The school has no quality classes or desks for the pupils to sit on, including those in the ECC section. The children manage to sit on broken benches supported by the legs of broken plastic teachers’ tables, wear torn uniforms, and slippers, and are taught in near-collapsing classroom blocks.

Photo Credit: Ndifreke Enefiok.
“Many parents keep their children at home because they’re tired of watching them sit on bare floors or broken planks in such uncomfortable conditions. Even the pupils are scared of the millipedes that crawl onto their desks.
“It is frightening for the younger ones in the ECC section, and sometimes they freak out when they see creeping animals under their legs or on their books. Parents have complained, and we are trying, but it is not enough,” a teacher who pleaded anonymity said while pointing to a millipede crawling across the classroom floor.
At St. Peter Primary School, Nung Atai Eta, Okobo LGA, the four classroom blocks reconstructed by former Governor Godswill Akpabio are under serious termite attack due to their proximity to a forest.
A part of the ECC section badly ravaged by termites was converted into a store for the few desks in the school, while a former block that would have housed some of the pupils was abandoned due to its dilapidated state.
Despite several interventions from UBEC, NGOs, Oron Development Union, Dallas Chapter (USA), Impact Water, and the lawmaker representing Okobo State Constituency, who provided plastic desks, school bags, books, and water storage cans, the school still faces challenges of adequate classrooms for the pupils.
Due to limited classrooms, pupils in ECC 1, 2, and 3 were lumped together in one class regardless of the age difference, a situation that creates learning disparity for early starters like 2–3-year-olds who should begin in the preparatory section of ECC 1.
“We would have separated them if we had more classes, but we are in a deficit of classes which is why they are lumped together. As it stands, we cannot even differentiate an ECC class because the structure is supposed to have a different design, playthings, artwork on the walls, and up-to-date learning materials and qualified teachers, but that is not the case,” a teacher in the school who did not want to be named for fear of civil service sanctions told our reporter.

While other rural schools struggle for ECC facilities, at Government Primary School, Mbiatok Itam, Itu LGA, two classroom blocks were facilitated to the school through the FGN/UBE/2020 constituency project by a former lawmaker, Hon. Henry Archibong. The ECC facilities have more plastic chairs and a few tables for writing, a situation that makes learning less uncomfortable for the children.
The walls of the classes were plain and non-interactive except for a few carbon papers carved out by the teachers and pasted on the walls with days of the week, types of weather, and numeracy to aid the children’s learning.
The fans installed in the classes had been vandalised by thieves who gained entrance through the ceiling. The school has no access to clean or safe water, and the pupils use a dilapidated pit toilet shared by other villagers who use the school for football activities and events.
Despite this intervention, the school faces challenges of adequate classes for ECC pupils.
Due to limited classrooms, pupils in ECC 1 and 2 were lumped into one class. A block that would have assisted in decongesting the pupils has been abandoned after a heavy wind blew off a part of the roof.
The remaining part of the abandoned building has been vandalised, with fans, ceilings, toilet facilities, pipes, a pumping machine for the water in the school, and other infrastructure, including farm produce, carted away.
The abandoned building was donated by a former Commissioner for Special Duties in Akwa Ibom State, late Arc. Otuekong Idongesit Udo-okpoh.
Aside from vandalism, the school faces a unique challenge of inconsistent retention of pupils significantly affected by hunger, economic poverty, and the long distance from their homes to the school.
A teacher who lamented bitterly about the alarming rate of vandalism revealed the school also faces constant encroachment from villagers who are erecting structures close to the school. Beside the school field, two structures were undergoing construction; one was proposed for an oil mill and the other for a residential area.
The school has no perimeter fence or means of identification to protect the children from child traffickers who have turned the LGA into a haven.
Itu LGA is one of the worst-hit LGAs with cases of child theft and trafficking, according to data from Save the Children, a non-governmental organisation.
Girls’ Enrolment, Retention Suffer Setback
Data obtained from the different schools visited showed that the enrolment and retention of girls were significantly affected by poor infrastructure, as parents who could no longer watch their children sit on bare floors kept the girls at home.
Hunger and the distance from home to school were other significant challenges that contributed to the low enrolment of girls.
Data obtained from Government Primary School, Ikot Ntuk, shows the school had a population of 400 boys and 500 girls, totalling 900 pupils in the 2023/2024 academic session (first term).
At the beginning of the third term, the enrolment rate increased to 462 boys and 585 girls, making the school population 1,047 pupils.
In the September 2024 session (first term), the school enrolment dropped to 500 boys and 400 girls, making it 900 pupils. Although the school had a total of 50 new enrolments at the beginning of the term, only 27 pupils remained till the end of the term.
A headcount conducted in December before the end of the first terminal examination by our reporter showed fewer than 50 pupils sat for the exams, and more girls had dropped out.
Further probing of the situation shows many parents had withdrawn their kids from school and engaged them at home with menial chores.
In one compound, our reporter counted 17 children (13 boys and 4 girls) who had dropped out of school in the community.
However, data from the Government School, Mbiatok Itam, shows the enrolment rate for the third term was 250 pupils. The new enrolment rate for the school dropped to 220 pupils, including the 50 new entrants.
Enrolment rates for the ECC classes fluctuated between school days. The entire ECC class 1 has an estimated population of 40 pupils. ECC 2 has a population of 38 pupils, while ECC 3 has an estimated enrolment rate of 11 pupils.
On December 1, the school attendance fluctuated between 10 boys and 6 girls, 12 boys and 7 girls on Tuesday, and 6 boys and 8 girls on Wednesday in the ECC 1 class.
The following week, the class attendance stood at 10 boys and 6 girls on Monday, 12 boys and 7 girls on Tuesday, and 6 boys and 8 girls on Wednesday. The pattern showed the attendance of girls dropped significantly between school days.
At Government Primary School, Nung Atai Eta, Okobo, data from the school shows it had a population of 300 pupils in the third term. The population was reduced to about 200 pupils, including the new entrants, in the September session (first term). However, a headcount conducted by our reporter showed fewer than 60 pupils were writing the exams.
Asked why the school attendance dropped during the exam period, a teacher who refused to be named said, “You will not see the children now because they are at the seaside with their parents. If you come back during the third term, you will be shocked by the population because they will return to write exams. And it is not only our school; all the schools I have taught in the coastal communities are like that.”
The teacher further highlighted how hunger affects the children’s concentration in school.
“You know these children are very small. Sometimes they come to school and struggle to concentrate because they did not eat in the morning. Aside from feeding, many of the children, when they come for admission, have no books, uniforms, or writing materials to use in school and this affects their learning outcomes,” the teacher added.
Teachers Share in the Neglect
The teachers are not left out, as they struggled in very uncomfortable conditions to teach the children. Across the different schools, the teachers faced inadequate educational supplies and basic amenities such as access to clean and safe water, tables, chairs, security, and transportation due to the long distances from home to school. They also lack teaching materials and have limited opportunities for professional development.
At Ikot Ntuk Primary School, none of the teachers had good chairs or tables to sit on while in school. Their tables and chairs, including the principal’s office, were infested with termites, which had ravaged the furniture and shelves containing pupils’ records in piles. The school has a disproportionate number of five female teachers and one male.
“Last term I didn’t have a chair to sit on and had to share a desk with the pupils in one of the classes. I tried fixing it from my pocket, but the chair broke down again, this time so badly that it cannot be fixed,” a teacher in the primary section stated.
In Mbiatok Itam, the school has 13 teachers, two male and 11 female teachers and the teachers have something close to good chairs; while Nung Atai Eta school has one male and six female teachers, and suffer the same fate as Ikot Ntuk teachers.
Moreover, training and retraining particularly teachers’ pedagogy to upgrade their capacity was a challenge. Some teachers who spoke under the condition of anonymity revealed they received only a three-day clustered training before their deployment, had limited knowledge of digital educational tools, and lacked access to laptops or good smartphones.
Even though the minimum teaching qualification for teachers is a Nigerian Certificate in Education (N.C.E), the importance of more training cannot be overemphasised.
At Mbiatok Itam, through the intervention of Heal the Land Initiative, an NGO, a five-day training was organised in September 2024 for the teachers to upgrade their knowledge before the first term resumption.
Many Years After Identifying the Problem, No Implementation
A 2020 National Bureau of Statistics report on men and women in Akwa Ibom reveals that the state has an estimated 581,800 out-of-school children.
Four years before the report was published by NBS, the 2016 financial statements of the Akwa Ibom government showed the problem of low enrolment and school dropouts at the primary level was already identified by the government.
In the Ministry of Education budget, the state planned to carry out targeted programmes tagged ‘’Campaign against non-enrolment of school-age children (checking hawking and loitering during school hours).’’ The provisions made for it were N2.5 million in 2016, N3 million in 2017 and 2018, and N15 million in 2018.
Checks into the financial statements of 2016 and 2018 showed no funds were released for the programme.
Additionally, the 2019 financial statement reports that the state spent N11 million on the programme in the fiscal year. Also, the state, between 2016 and 2018, budgeted N2 million each for the three fiscal years for the ‘’Creation of Awareness of the Free and Compulsory Education in the Remote Areas of the State.’’ There were no releases for the programme despite identifying the problem.
From 2019 through 2021, the state initiated another project tagged ‘’Conduct of Community and Household Research/Survey/Mapping on Out-of-School Children by the Ministry of Education.’’ N25 million was budgeted for in 2019, N500,000 in 2020, and N2 million in 2021. Yet no funds were released for it.
The state, through the Ministry of Education, went further to initiate more programmes like ‘’Collation and Publication of Report on Out-of-School Children in Booklet Form (3,000 copies @N1,000 per booklet).’’ 3 million Naira was budgeted for it in 2019, N200,000 in 2020 and 2021, without releases.
To further address the problem, the government also made provisions to SUBEB for the ‘’Mass Mobilisation/Sensitisation Programme to Mop Up Out-of-School Children.’’ N5 million was budgeted for it in 2017, and N3 million each for 2018 and 2019, making it N11 million. Yet, no releases were made for it according to data from the financial statements.
Similarly, budgetary provisions for ECCDE have remained abysmal. In the 2022 budget, N10 million was earmarked for the provision of 400 children’s plastic tables/chairs for the ECCDE centre. The amount was reduced to N4 million in 2023.
The state budgeted N1.5 million for the provision of 250 teachers’ tables/chairs for ECCDE, primary school, and JSS teachers in 2022 and N4 million in 2023. Nothing was recorded in the financial statement for the fiscal years for releases.
This continuous non-release of funds for an important programme like mopping up out-of-school and basic education points to where government priorities lie. The state Ministry of Education had, over different fiscal years, received low allocations.
In 2022, the ministry had the lowest capital expenditure of N3.2 billion (1.6%) as against other sectors like the Office of the Accountant General, which spent at least N79.8 billion (18.0%) as its capital expenditure. The Government House spent N34.3 billion (or 7.8%), while the State Budget Office spent N32.8 billion (or 7.4%).
Meanwhile, the state, through FGN-UBEC intervention, received a matching grant of N1.2 million in the 2022 1st-4th quarters.
The neglect by the government is glaring and deeply troubling.
Further Neglect by the Government
More concerning is the non-implementation of the State Strategic Education Roadmap (AKSER) 2020-2030, developed under the government of Mr Udom Emmanuel by a team of academics after the state organised its first-ever Education Summit on September 5-6th, 2019.
Mr Emmanuel, the former governor of the state, also in 2021 declared war on education and went a step further to set up the education think-tank committee to chart a pathway for the sector.
He said on January 3rd, 2021, ‘’In 2021, we have declared war on education the same way we declared war on healthcare in the state before COVID-19. We have a comprehensive education agenda we have been compiling, and we are going to launch out aggressively.’’
The roadmap developed by the team identified issues such as inadequate and poorly trained teaching staff, poor working conditions, dilapidated public primary and secondary schools, violence in schools, and low enrolments.
It proposed matching funds be allocated to the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to improve infrastructures for nursery and primary schools, Integrated Early Childcare Development (IECD), provision of free exercise books/textbooks, a one-lunch-per student programme, and free medical check-ups each term.
More than four years later, the Education Roadmap 2020-2030, policy document remains unimplemented.
Implement Education Roadmap now – Advocacy Groups
In a Punch newspaper publication dated June 2, 2024, a group identified as Education Road Map Advocacy expressed concern over the non-implementation of the roadmap.
The group’s leader, Kris Ekefre, stated that the failure of the government to implement the roadmap has hindered the donation of 300,000 books promised by the American government to Akwa Ibom libraries.
‘’The first phase of the educational roadmap that was completed during the past administration has not been implemented till today. The second phase which is the narrative edition has not been completed for the enabling law to emerge as a pedestal to support documents for grants, and donor agencies like the World Bank to access those materials.
‘’If they had finished the roadmap faithfully, the American government had promised to send 300,000 books in the first instance to Akwa Ibom libraries,’’ Ekefre stated.
An NGO, Clement Isong Foundation on November 30th, 2024 in a press statement signed by its Executive Director, Elkanah Oluyori stated that the absence of an education sector plan is more than an administrative gap, but a systematic barrier to sustainable educational development.
Data released by UBEC in November 2024 on states yet to access matching grants funds, revealed that a staggering sum of 135 billion naira in matching grants were yet to be accessed between 2020 and 2024.
Akwa Ibom State was among the nine states and Abuja (Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory), that did not access the matching grants for 2023.
The UBEC Executive Secretary, Dr Hamid Bobboyi, attributed the challenges of states not accessing the grants to low budgetary allocations at the state level and local government levels, lack of political will and commitment by some state governments for basic education.
Parents and community leaders Express Worry
For parents like Donald Michael, a 37-year-old father of four from Ikot Ntuk, the absence of quality education for girls in pre-primary school is a constant source of worry and strain on his pocket as he has to work more than one job to meet the demands of saving for a private school for his children.
Michael, who is unemployed, believes deeply in the power of education but is saddened by the lack of a functional ECC facility for his daughters.
‘’The only government school in our village is dilapidated and the government is not doing enough to remedy the situation.’’
His frustration is shared by many parents who, despite their best efforts, find themselves trapped in a cycle of poverty and educational neglect.
For Imelda Friday, a mother of three, the burden of watching her children stay at home and miss critical phases of their lives was not an option.
“Every day, my children come home covered in dust because they sometimes sit on the floor if they go late to school due to lack of desks in the school. I can’t watch them stay at home, that’s why I allow them to still go to the school despite the poor condition.”
The Village Head of Ikot Ntuk, His Royal Highness, Obong Michael Dick lamented the negligence of the government to the education sector.
The community leader explained that this neglect is pushing the children from school into juvenile activities that may hinder their prospects in life.
‘’We need urgent help to keep the children in school and improve enrolment and completion around our community because they are dropping out to join bad gangs,’’ the village head added.
A Social Advocate and alumni of the school, Mr. Udimekong Joshua stressed the need to invest in rural schools to increase educational access and reduce private school merchandise.
‘’A government primary that serves a population of 5000 people should be their last hope but, in a situation, where their last hope is nothing to write home about, is a mockery of the free and compulsory policy of the government.
The situation is even dire because parents who are dissatisfied with the state of the school now prefer their children stay at home than sit on the floor in a school,’’ Mr Joshua said.
Poverty, a barrier not Government – SUBEB Chairman
The Chairman of SUBEB, Rt. Hon. Anietie Etuk attributed the low enrolment and completion rates of ECC pupils in rural areas to parental negligence. Etuk noted that the government is aware of the out-of-school children’s statistics and has been making substantial efforts to address the issue through targeted grassroots sensitisation, radio programmes, church outreach, village meetings, and markets.
“Currently, we have about three centres established in collaboration with the state government to see how we can take care of our children who are not in school. Poverty has been the bane of many things contributing to early learners not having access to education.
The state and federal governments are doing everything possible to ensure children have access to education,” he said.
Regarding the dilapidated state of ECC facilities contributing to low enrolment and completion rate of pupils, the SUBEB Chairman explained that the government is making an effort to provide a conducive learning environment for children and is budgeting for it.
“In 2022, a total of 1.2 million Naira was paid by the state government as a counterpart fund to the federal government to ensure that we build schools, renovate some of the old structures, and provide both learning materials and desks to schools.
In 2023, the government paid 1.3 billion Naira to improve education, in addition to the model schools the governor is building.
“The governor goes further to provide facilities for ECCE like mats, desks, sandals, uniforms, and every learning aid to encourage school attendance, but the parents are not helping by sending their children to sell during school hours,” Rt. Hon. Anietie Etuk said.
Before the dissolution of the State Executive Council, attempts by this reporter to reach the then Commissioner for Education, Mrs Idongesit Etiebet for comment on the initiative of government to address school dropouts in rural areas, and enforce compliance by parents with the free and compulsory education policy, were unsuccessful. She did not answer text messages, phone calls, and WhatsApp messages sent to her official phone number.
Implementing the Education Roadmap: The Way Forward
Akwa Ibom state has been budgeting for education without implementing the education roadmap 2020-2030, for more than four years now. What this means is that the state has been budgeting amiss without following the roadmap.
According to the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), while governments and development partners are making progress towards reducing inequity in access, gender gaps, and marginalisation in education, there is a need to have an education sector plan (ESP).
GPE argues that an ESP, when injected into the sector, helps the government identify barriers within the system and advance gender equality in education, particularly for vulnerable children, especially girls. To adequately address these gaps, every ESP must be gender Responsive, and identify and address issues affecting boys and girls.
A gender-responsive education sector plan (GRESP) is a whole-system approach to advancing gender equality in and through education, including learning and learning environments, teacher education and practice, curriculum and materials development, and leadership and administration.
Therefore, to address these issues, Akwa Ibom state must urgently review and implement its education roadmap to address the various problems facing the sector, as well as make it gender-responsive.
The roadmap must outline how issues such as inaccessibility to ECCDE facilities, child labour in rural areas, dilapidated structures, ECCDE facility vandalism, and insecurity in rural schools will be addressed to increase school enrolment, retention, and completion rates.
The roadmap should address the continuous non-releases in the education sector, and disaggregate the needs of learners according to their gender to encourage enrolment, retention, and completion rates.
The roadmap must consider insecurity in rural schools, especially child trafficking due to the distance to schools. Where schools are far from home, a means of identification should be provided for every child. The importance of perimeter fencing, security in schools, and renovation cannot be overemphasised.
Data collection, deployment of gender officers to schools, monitoring and evaluation framework, and partnership with community leaders, NGOs, the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare, and other relevant ministries will provide better insights on how to tackle these issues. The roadmap must highlight the importance of continuous monitoring and evaluation and partnership with non-state actors.
Provision of learning materials, a safe school environment, WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene), and the training and recruitment of qualified teachers can improve qualitative education, therefore the roadmap must highlight these core needs.
*This report was published with collaborative support from ImpactHouse Centre for Development Communication and System Strategy and Policy Lab (SSPL).