Recently, the Ebonyi State government through the Commissioner for Information and State Orientation Barrister Uchenna Orji, revealed the governments plan to return back to school out of school children in the state.
Orji stated this during an advocacy visit paid on him by Social Mobilization Technical Committee on UNICEF Programme in Ebonyi state, on Friday November 1, 2019.
He disclosed that the targeted number for a start is 50,000 out of school children. Noting; the governor is doing a lot in the area of returning out of school children back to school. We are targeting 50, 000 number for a start. We will make sure that we comb the entire state to bring back to school all the children who have been out of school because of the issue of finance and lack of orientation, he stated.
The Voice recognizes the fact that the State government has done tremendously well when it comes to issue of child abuse, female genital mutilation, violence against persons among other vices against children. Through the pet project of the first lady, Family Succor and Upliftment Foundation, several cases related to child abuses are being address. The state government has taken it upon itself to fight cultism in schools as well as community level, through series of campaigns and sensitization against cultism. As a result, the state is gradually breathing a sign of relief from the activities of cultists as many have denounced their membership and turned a new leaf.
Indeed, this newspaper believes that the move by the State government to return children who dropped out of school or couldnt attend at all due to finance or other challenges is a welcome development.
This shows that the state government has its people at heart and wants the best for the state.
However, we must advise that the promise of bringing back out of school children in Ebonyi state should not be dead on arrival; it should see the light of the day by making sure that our children who have taken to hawking and begging as only means of survival are taken from the streets.
The state government should set up a committee that would be charged with the responsibility of sorting out this category of children in various communities, who have reached the age of schooling but are yet to enroll, and children who dropped out of school due to lack of finance.
The state government should also encourage free education at the primary and secondary levels by providing even the materials these children would need to study with as some schools extort money from parents under the guise of buying such materials.
In some cases, some drop out due to the inability of their parents to pay for such little things. Government should take into consideration, that all hands are not equal, as most children come from homes where the can hardly afford one square meal a day talk more of paying school levies.
Government should not just bring back the school children, but ensure that these children are being monitored or supervised to ensure that they dont drop out again. This will go a long way in reducing the level of illiteracy in the State and checkmate the success of the program.

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