The federal government yesterday warned that the trend in which children of school age are engaged in other businesses as obtained in the South-East, or roam the streets begging and hawking must stop, saying what happened to the almajirai in the North must be extended to the South-East and other regions in the country.
This is even as the Governors’ Forum implored the federal government to declare a state of emergency in the education sector.
Vice President Namadi Sambo, who sounded the warning at a special meeting on the almajirai education programme, while representing President Goodluck Jonathan at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, said it had come to government’s notice that apart from the North where the ‘almajiri’ phenomenon is being tackled, there are many children in other parts of the country that are not in school.
Harping strongly on the South East situation where young children of school age are forced into trading instead of school,? Sambo hinted that the Federal Government has started building schools near major markets and shopping areas in the region to afford the young ones access to formal education.