A bill to increase the penalty for parents who deny their children the right to education from N2,500 to N250,000 was passed for a second reading by the Nigerian Senate on Wednesday, June 5, 2024.
The bill, sponsored by Senator Idiat Adebule, is tagged the “Bill for an Act to amend the Compulsory, Free Universal Basic Education Act.”
The bill aims to deter parents from involving their children in commercial activities, child labour, or domestic chores during school hours, preventing children from attending school.
The bill seeks to review the law to ensure that a key provision in the UBE Act, which empowers the Local Education Authority within the States of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to punish parents who deny their wards the right to basic education, is implemented.
Additionally, the bill seeks to amend and delete section 4(2) of the UBE Act, 2004, which excludes parents in the diaspora from being sanctioned.
Lawmakers unanimously supported the bill as it scaled the second reading and was referred to the Committee on Education, Basic and Secondary, to report back in two weeks.
In May 2024, a report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria is now 18.3 million. The figure has been disputed by government officials.
The report was disclosed during a two-day Regional Stakeholders Engagement Meeting in Gombe on Out-of-School Children and Retention, Transition, and Completion Models in Bauchi, Gombe, and Adamawa states by Dr. Tushar Rane, Chief of the Bauchi Field Office.
The report stated that the figure places Nigeria as the country with the highest number of out-of-school children in the world.
