The Nasarawa State Government has warned that parents and guardians who fail to enrol their children in school to acquire basic education will face prosecution in line with the provisions of the Child Rights Law.
The warning was issued by the Chairman of the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, Dr Kassim Mohammed Kassim, during a media briefing in Lafia on ahead of the Basic Education Summit.
Dr Kassim said the rising number of children not enrolled in school in the state had made it necessary for the government to enforce the law.
“Our statistics show that we have a high number of children not enrolled in school in the state, and the Board desires to make education compulsory and free for every child in Nasarawa State,” he said.
He reminded parents that “Section 6 of our law makes it mandatory that education must be free and compulsory for all children. We will enforce the law against any parent who fails to enrol their children and wards accordingly.”
The SUBEB chairman also disclosed that the state government is addressing manpower shortages in the primary education sector through the redeployment and recruitment of teachers.
According to him, 1,900 qualified teachers earlier redeployed to local government administrative offices have already been returned to classrooms, while an additional 1,000 teachers are expected to be reassigned soon to further boost staffing in public schools.
Dr Kassim said the board is strengthening collaboration with community leaders and other stakeholders to ensure the safety of pupils and protect school infrastructure across the state.
He listed vandalism, teacher truancy, substandard school projects and diversion of instructional materials as some of the major challenges confronting basic education in Nasarawa State.