WHO afraid for Nigeria over rising rate of school drop outs

The world Health Organization (WHO) has raised the alarm on the increasing number of young people dropping out of school yearly.

This, the organisation noted, is due to economic hardship in Nigeria and other African countries.

Quoting a research by commissioned experts, the world body said already, the economic and social lives of over 89 million out-of-school young people, who constitute nearly half of all youths in the Sub-Saharan Africa, is disturbing.

The researchers attributed most unrest in the African sub region to easy prey-target of the dropouts by most violent groups at various sub regions.

It noted that there are yet to be noticeable porogrammes aimed at re-orientating the victims of this negligence.

“Within the next decade, when this becomes the core of the labour market, an estimated 40 million more youth will drop out, and will face an uncertain future with limited work and life skills.

“Furthermore, out-of-school youth are policy orphans, positioned between sectors with little data, low implementation capacity, lack of interest in long-term sustainability of programmes, with insufficient funds, and little coordination across the different government agencies,” says WHO.

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This report supports its findings with some analysis of the age bracket of these out-of-school youths, falling within the 12-to-24-year-old group.

It also examines the decision path that the youths take as they progress through the education system and the factors that explain youth’s school and work choices, which wrong policy can go a long way to undermine.

It finds that individual and household characteristics, social norms, and characteristics of the school system all matter in understanding why the rate in youth dropping out in schools grows.

Picking some key factors that make dropping out of school possible, the report says they include early marriage for female youth, lack of parental education as well as non affordability of cost of education and lack of access to educational institutions, among others.

But lack of policy initiation, aimed at encouraging the youth to see potential of remaining in school is found lacking in most countries with the high risk of school dropout.

By Emma Eke….

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