The Nasarawa State Government has unveiled plans to bring school-age children who are out of school back into classrooms, with possible prosecution awaiting parents who refuse to comply.
The government said it would first embark on a statewide advocacy campaign before introducing tougher measures against parents who keep their children away from school.
The Senior Special Assistant to Governor Abdullahi Sule on Public Affairs, Peter Ahemba, disclosed this on Wednesday during a bi-monthly media briefing in Lafia.
Ahemba said the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) had been instructed to work with the Ministry of Justice on the proposed enforcement mechanism.
He explained that the government was considering mobile courts to deal with cases involving parents who fail to ensure that their children attend school.
However, he stressed that enforcement would not begin immediately. The government would first give parents an opportunity to comply through an extensive sensitisation campaign.
After the advocacy phase, a task force is expected to monitor streets during school hours and identify children who should be in school.
The officials would then trace the children to their parents and determine why they were not attending classes.
Ahemba said parents found culpable could face prosecution after the government begins full enforcement.
He explained that the policy was designed to make school attendance a shared responsibility between government and parents.
According to him, the objective is to ensure that poverty, neglect or parental failure does not permanently deprive children in Nasarawa of education.
The state government is also providing basic learning materials as part of efforts to encourage enrolment and reduce the burden on families.
Ahemba said SUBEB had procured more than 10,000 exercise books, school uniforms and sandals for distribution to pupils in public schools across the state.
He said the provision of such materials would complement the government’s campaign to get more children into school.
Nasarawa recruits 1,000 primary school teachers
Meanwhile, the state government has completed the recruitment process for 1,000 primary school teachers to strengthen staffing in public schools.
Ahemba said the newly recruited teachers would be deployed mainly to rural primary schools where there is a need for additional manpower.
He said more than 10,000 people applied for the positions, but only 1,000 candidates were selected for the initial recruitment.
The governor’s aide maintained that merit was the basis for the selection process.
He said the government deliberately avoided political or other considerations in choosing the successful applicants.
The recruitment and provision of learning materials, he added, form part of broader efforts by the Sule administration to improve access to quality basic education across Nasarawa State.