We need to do more for out-of-school children – Oyo Education Commissioner

For society to be free of social vices, it is important that the government and stakeholders partner in providing education for the vulnerable and out-of-school children in the country.

Oyo State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Barrister Abdul-Rahman Abdul-Raheem made this known while speaking at a scholarship programme for in and out of school children in Oyo State.

The scholarship programme which was mainly for pupils whose parents are incarcerated was organized by the Prisons Fellowship of Nigeria, Oyo State.

Represented by an officer from the Family life HIV AIDS Education Unit of the ministry, Mrs. Oluyemisi Abiola, the commissioner called on non-state actors to emulate such gestures by complementing government efforts at providing free education.

Also speaking, representative of the Oyo State Comptroller of Correctional Service, Deputy Controller of Corrections, Mrs. Bukola Ajeleti reiterated the commitment of NCoS to ensuring safe custody of offenders, their rehabilitation and reformation.

She said, “the offender is, thus assisted to become not only law-abiding but also become useful to both himself and the society at the expiration of his/her sentence”.

Chairman of the project tagged “Promise Path Mentoring and Psychosocial Children Educational Initiative”, Reverend Kayode Soyombo said the fellowship was bothered about the statistics by the United Nations Children Fund, UNICEF which pegged the number of out-of-school in Nigeria to 14.2 million children.

Reverend Soyombo said the fellowship decided to sponsor thirty children of inmates in Agodi Correctional Centre, between the ages of four and eighteen through secondary education as a way of reducing out of school children who might potentially become victims of bad influences.

He stressed the need to give the inmate children better life and discourage them from committing crimes through quality education and training.

Earlier in a welcome address, Oyo State president, Prisons Fellowship of Nigeria, Prophet Boyede Sule promised to monitor the beneficiaries in their respective schools to ensure the scholarship funds are judiciously used.

Mosope Kehinde