House of Reps hopeful promises to fight out-of-school syndrome

The APGA candidate for the Enugu North and South Federal Constituency, Nonso Nnamani, says he will champion the struggle to end the out-of-school syndrome in the area if elected.

Nnamani described the statistic of one in every four children out of school in Enugu as disturbing and unacceptable.

He spoke on his plan to revamp education during an interactive session with newsmen in Enugu on Thursday.

He said that it was worrisome that 416,832 of the 20 million out-of-school children in Nigeria are from the state.

“This represents 26.5 percent of the children in the state,” Nnamani said.

According to him, the figure is terrible, to say the least.

He, therefore, charged the PDP-led government to do more to ensure that every child acquired basic education that would help to equip them for the future.

“This is why one of my key agendas is to ensure that every child, not just in my constituency but Nigeria as a whole, acquire basic education.

“This will offer them the opportunity to get vocational skills that will help them carve better future for themselves and society,” he said.

Nnamani said he planned to achieve the goal by leveraging funding from international donor agencies, such as the United Nations and World Bank, amongst others.

He said that he would offer scholarships and partner with vocational centers to train youths in different skills.

“We will provide teaching equipment to ensure that the students are getting a quality education. We shall support schools to be equipped with state-of-the-art facilities to make teaching and learning easier,” Nnamani said.

He decried the “pitiable” condition of social amenities, such as toilets and sports facilities, in most public schools in the constituency.

He promised to address the gap and also rebuild the infrastructure and classroom blocks to enhance the school environment.

The APGA candidate further promised to “re-introduce education fairs in science and entrepreneurship”.

He said that the initiative would help to psych up the creativity of students and their ability to bring innovative ideas.

“By re-introducing science fairs, we are going to ensure that students are more equipped to become problem solvers,” he said.