How I Will Tackle Out-of-School Children Crisis- Peter Obi

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has said that the 20 million out-of-school children data in the country is a national crisis that will be tackled head-on if elected in 2023 election.

 

Newsonline reports that Peter Obi said if elected he will introduce a mandatory ‘no child left’ policy to make sure that all children of school age return to classes.

 

The Labour Party presidential candidate stated this on Tuesday at the 2022 Lagos Business School (LBS) Alumni Conference where he spoke on the theme: “Creating an Enabling Environment for Business Nigeria”.

 

Obi said his ‘Marshall Plan for Education’ will foster nationwide federal intervention in education at all levels and partner with state and international organizations to improve access to affordable and quality education at all levels.

 

“Twenty million out-of-school children is a dire national crisis. As part of our Marshall Plan for Education, we will foster nationwide Federal intervention in education at all levels and partnership with State Governments and international organizations in order to improve access to affordable and quality education at all levels.

 

“We will introduce a mandatory “No Child left Behind” educational policy, mindful that Nigeria’s inadequate investment in the social sectors such as health, education and housing, has resulted in large number of out-of-school children, huge unmet housing needs as well high youth unemployment,” Peter Obi said.

 

The former governor of Anambra State also said his administration will prioritize a structured approach to digital learning to ensure that Nigeria takes advantage of jobs in the technology sector.

 

He said, “We will prioritize a structured approach to developing the digital skills of our young population to give them the competitive advantage to receive offshore jobs in the new gig economy, while also improving the efficiency and productivity level of our economy.”

 

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He added that ‘Our government shall prioritize education to serve the following functions: technical and industry relevance; alignment with local comparative advantages and factor endowments; modern skills proficiency, critical thinking, ethical citizenship values, global competitiveness, and talent export.

 

Speaking on tertiary education, Peter Obi said, “TETFund resources must be re-directed to funding of the Universities and other higher institutions robustly with a view to ending the perennial strikes by University Staff and workers.

 

“We will review the legislation guiding the fund access modalities to Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), to redress prevailing bottlenecks, create greater transparency, and ensure increased flexibility, and optimum availability of funds required to meet the educational need of the Nigerian students they are meant to serve.”

 

On his plan for health care, maternal and infant health care, the former governor of Anambra said, “We will invest in data and technology systems that will trigger efficiency in health systems governance, logistics, disease prevention and control, epidemic prediction, mitigation and response, and human and financial resource tracking and optimisation.

 

“We will expand local production use and export of pharmaceuticals, diagnostics and other healthcare consumables, as part of our strategy to promote quality, make efficiency gains, expand production and broaden the contribution of the health industry to GDP.

 

“High infant and maternal mortality are systemic and orientation driven. Personnel, training and service delivery also play a role. We will unite ad incentivize health workers, expand our capacity for production and make our health workers feel proud to live in and work for Nigerians.”