CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Education plays an important role in
children’s lives, as it is the path that is guaranteed to enable them
attains their full potentials in life. Children can only blossom
socially and absorb instructions, when exposed to quality education,
which also helps them acquire basic knowledge. Sadly, however, many
children cannot access quality education as a result of various factors.
In an ideal world, primary education would be universal and publicly
financed, and all children would be able to attend school regardless of
their parents' ability or willingness to pay. The reason is that a child
that fails to get the basic skills needed to act as an effective and
responsible member of society, such a child will be considered inferior
with other children in the society. The cost of educating children is
far outweighed by the cost of not educating them. Adults who
lack basic skills have greater difficulty finding well-paying jobs and
escaping poverty. Education for girls has astonishing benefits in the
sense that incomes are higher and there is a lower rate in maternal and
infant for women because of their acquired knowledge through education.
They also have more personal freedom in making choices in one area or
the other.
Many children in poor countries drop out
of school before graduating. In 1999, the completion rated the
percentage of children of graduating age who completed primary school
that year as 73 percent in developing countries as against a group of 81
percent in East Asia, compared to 50 percent in South Asia and
sub-Saharan Africa. As discouraging as these figures are, they, too,
represent an improvement: completion rates were lower in 1990. Today in
Nigeria, more than two million children in the northern region, which is
the most affected area, do not have access to basic primary education.
Most of these children, who started primary education, were unable to
finish, while many of them that completed it will still miss out on
secondary education. In Nigeria today, some half a million adolescents
are receiving post primary education. The major contributory factor to
this dilemma is unaffordable cost. Poverty is the greatest barrier to
high quality education, and even when primary education is free, there
are also the additional costs of uniforms, books, teachers’ salaries and
school maintenance, all of which create tremendous burden to poor
families.
In conclusion, in order to salvage the
dying educational sector, both the public and private school sector to
ensure that it serves the child’s best interest, parents should
constitute themselves into informed and organised regulatory bodies. The
primary mandate of the regulatory body is to insist on quality
education, provided in a protected environment. For example, we have the
Nigeria Police, which cannot adequately provide security. So, as
citizens, we provide for ourselves alternative means of securing our
lives and property.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The problem that is common to many
developing countries is that the governments lack either the financial
power or the political will to meet their citizens' educational needs.
In response to this, poor parents in some low income countries organize
and pay for their children's education themselves while some of them
still hope in government for their children’s education. School fees and
other user payments are a heavy burden for some parents to bear when it
comes to sending their children to school.
Nigeria’s population growth has put
pressure on the country’s resources, public ser-vices and
infrastructure. With children under 15 years of age accounting for 45
per cent of the 171 million populations, the burden on education has
become overwhelming. The numbers of children that enrolling into primary
school for elementary education has greatly increased in recent years,
but subtracting the numbers of those that are absent from those that are
present is only about 70 per cent, but Nigeria still has 10.5 million
children who are not in school. This is the world’s highest number.
Sixty per cent of those children are in northern Nigeria. About 60 per
cent of out-of-school children are girls. Some of those that even enrol
drop out early. This reason is because of the low perceptions of the
value of education for girls and early marriages. Some states in the
north have laws that stipulates the level in which girls can acquire
education before they are been withdrawn and sent for marriages.
Although, primary school attendance for girls has recently been
encouraging with but this is an exception for girls from the poorest
households. This study was therefore geared towards improving and
providing useful tips on how children can have access to good and
quality education to enable them realise their full potentials in life.
1.3 Research Questions
The following are some of the questions which this study intends to answer:
i) what are the
prevailing factors that are responsible for children and their access to
quality education in Nigeria?
ii) what are the reasons for the children and their access to quality education in Nigeria?
iii) what are the roles of
parents and government in ensuring that children have access to quality
education in Nigeria?
1.4 Objectives of the Study
This study investigated children and their access to quality education. However, th specific objectives were:
i) to examine the
prevailing factors that are responsible for children and their access to
quality education in Nigeria
ii) to assess out the reasons for the children and their access to quality education in Nigeria
iii) to determine the
roles of parents and government in ensuring that children have access to
quality education in Nigeria
1.5 Significance of the Study
The findings from this study
would benefit parents, government and even school children in
understanding what quality education means in life. It will also help
the parents and the government to know the best way to follow in order
to achieve good and quality education for the children and learn the
subtle ways of tackling any problem that may want to stand in the way of
achieving access to good and quality education for children.
1.6 Scope of the Study
The study investigated children and
their access to quality education. It therefore covered only the primary
school children, parents and government. This is because they are the
subjects that accurate and adequate information can be got from.
1.7 Limitation of the study
Because the study focused on children
and their access to quality education, the researcher was not faced with
many challenges as the respondents were readily available to give their
thoughts on children and their access to quality education. This made
it easier and convenient for researcher. However, the researcher was
faced with the challenge of finance to print as much as two hundred
questionnaires but was able to print only one hundred and fifty
questionnaires for the study.
1.8 Definitions of Terms
The following terms were used in the course of this study:
Access: the right or privilege to approach, reach, enter, or make use of something.
Children: A person between birth and puberty
Quality Education: It
refers to providing all learners with capabilities they require to
become economically productive, develop sustainable livelihoods,
contribute to peaceful and democratic societies and enhance individual
well-being.