Bayelsa Proffers Solution to Nigeria’s Out-of-school Crisis

Olusegun Samuel in Yenagoa

In order to reduce the number of out-of-school children in the country, the Bayelsa State Government has called on states across the country to adopt its educational model, BayelsaPRIME.

This is contained in a paper titled: ‘Restoring Confidence in Public Education: How Bayelsa is Tackling the Root Causes of Out-of-School Children’, by the state Commissioner for Education, Dr. Gentle Emelah.

Emelah delivered the paper yesterday at the Nigerian Governors’ Forum programme ‘State-Level Solutions to Foundational Learning and Out-of-School Children’, for Commissioners of Education in Yenagoa, the state capital.

He pointed out that access to education, building of classrooms and hiring of teachers are only part solutions, which cannot solve the nation’s out-of-school crisis.

Emelah stressed that the deeper challenge lies in what happens inside the classroom explaining that children are dropping out of school because schools are not working.

According to him, “One truth must guide our deliberations: Nigeria’s out-of-school crisis cannot be solved by access alone, as well as building classrooms or hiring teachers is only part of the solution.

“The deeper challenge lies in what happens inside those classrooms. Too many children are dropping out of school not because schools are out of reach, but because schools are not working.”

He said Bayelsa State is taking a different approach to modernise education through the BayelsaPRIME model to instill confidence in public education.

“Bayelsa is taking a different path. With the launch of BayelsaPRIME (Bayelsa Promoting Reforms to Improve and Modernise Education), we are confronting the core issues that keep children out of school.

“When learners sit in class for years without gaining basic literacy or numeracy skills, families begin to disengage. And when parents lose confidence in what public education can deliver, enrolment stalls and dropout rates rise.

“In just 19 instructional weeks, BayelsaPRIME has achieved a 20 percentage point reduction in the number of Primary 1 pupils unable to read a single word,” he said.

The commissioner said Bayelsa State is not just focusing on access, but building public trust in public education by ensuring that every child who walks into a classroom learns, and learns well.

Continuing, he stated that: “This is not anecdotal. It is data-backed evidence of system-level change. More importantly, it is beginning to reverse the national trend.

“Enrolment has been acknowledged as a challenge in Nigeria due to learning poverty and weak school quality, but Bayelsa’s public school enrolment has grown from 25,000 to over 40,000 pupils. And we are gaining more children each term than we lose.

“This increase is not the result of a mass enrolment campaign. It is the natural effect of building a system that works.

“Parents are making the choice to bring their children back into the school system because they are seeing real learning take place.

“His Excellency, Governor Douye Diri, has been clear in his vision that Bayelsa State is not interested in paper qualifications without substance.

“We are investing in science, technical and foundational learning to produce young people who can thrive in the future workforce. “

He added: “At the Education World Forum earlier this year, Governor Diri spoke about these reforms in an interview with Times Higher Education.

“He made it clear that education is central to socio-economic progress, and that any government failing to prioritise it risks undermining national stability.”