Nigeria: Nasarawa Plans Mobile Courts for Parents of Out-of-School Children

What the report says

Nasarawa State in northern Nigeria is preparing a campaign to bring school-age children back into classrooms and may create mobile courts to prosecute parents who keep children out of school, according to a Vanguard report distributed by AllAfrica. The plan was outlined in Lafia on Wednesday by Peter Ahemba, senior special assistant to Governor Abdullahi Sule on public affairs, during his bi-monthly media briefing.

Ahemba said the State Universal Basic Education Board has been told to work with the Ministry of Justice on the proposed courts. The government intends to begin with advocacy across the state before moving to enforcement. It also plans to set up a task force to identify children found on the streets during school hours, trace their parents and refer cases for prosecution if necessary.

The state says the effort is meant to reduce the number of out-of-school children and ensure that education is not denied to any child in Nasarawa. As part of the wider push, officials said more than 10,000 exercise books, uniforms, sandals and other learning materials have been procured for public school pupils.

Ahemba also said the state has completed recruitment for 1,000 primary school teachers to serve in rural schools. The report says the selection was made from more than 10,000 applicants. If implemented, the combined measures would pair incentives for enrolment with stronger enforcement against parents.