Prominent Human Rights Lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has called upon the National Assembly to take concrete steps to address the dire state of basic education in Nigeria rather than focusing on punitive measures against parents who fail to send their children to school. Falana’s statement emphasized the need for a more comprehensive approach to improving access to quality education.
In his statement, Falana expressed concern about the National Assembly’s attempt to amend the Universal Basic Education Act of 2004, introducing severe penalties for parents who do not enroll their children in school. He argued that such punitive measures are unnecessary and show a lack of institutional memory regarding the progress made by the legislature in promoting universal access to basic education.
Falana further pointed out that the federal, state, and local governments share the joint responsibility of ensuring that every Nigerian child has access to free and compulsory education. He highlighted the breach of laws related to children’s rights and free basic education, attributing it to a lack of commitment among the political class to the education of all Nigerian children.
The lawyer underscored the urgency of addressing the issue of state governments failing to make the required counterpart contributions to the Universal Basic Education Fund, as mandated by the Compulsory Free Universal Basic Education Act. To rectify this, Falana suggested amending the Constitution to empower the Accountant-General of the Federation to directly deduct the counterpart funds owed by state governments to the Universal Basic Education Fund at the source.
Falana’s statement emphasizes the need for a collective effort to address the challenges in Nigeria’s education system, particularly the high number of out-of-school children, which is the highest in the world. Rather than focusing on punitive measures against parents, he calls for more effective and equitable strategies to improve access to quality education for all children in the country.