STEMMING INCREASE IN OUT-OF-SCHOOL CHILDREN: THE VOLUNTEER OPTION
The rate at which out-of-school children is increasing in Nigeria is alarming! While efforts at stemming it is not yielding desired results, this beams the world’s searchlight on the nation. Many children including girls in rural communities in which Kogi State is one find it very difficult to access basic education which tends to add to the number of adult illiteracy. Challenges including poverty, insecurity, cultural factors, and lack of physical structures, teachers, and instructional materials among others have been raised in literature as causal factors for not realising the goal of a right to basic education of every child in Nigeria. However, there is dearth of literature on the option of volunteering as a positive influence on stemming out-of-school children. This study, therefore, explored the dynamics of volunteering and a mix of both indigenous and formal style of teaching in arousing the interest of out-of-school children to attend and complete primary school in rural Kogi. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. Twenty-eight participants consisting of both sexes of eight pupils, eight volunteer teachers, eight SUBEB teachers, and four representative heads in Bassa and Dekina LGAs were purposively selected for interview and observation. Findings revealed rich peculiarities in the experience of the participants. It was, therefore, recommended among others that, birth registration should be optimized, full salaries of teachers should be paid while all hands must be on deck to support education in the study area.
Keywords: Increase, out-of-school children, volunteer
