The IA-Foundation Out-of-School Children Summit, themed “Street to School: A Panacea to a Menace” was held on Wednesday 18th October 2023. It was a hybrid event, with the physical audience converging at the Lagos Marriott Hotel, Ikeja, while the virtual participants connected via Zoom and Facebook. The goal of the Summit was to trigger national consciousness, interest and involvement in the issue of out-of-school children among various stakeholders in multiple sectors and industries. The highlight of the Summit includes a goodwill message by Oba Abolarin Adedokun, a guest lecture by Babajide Ogunsanwo, a Keynote address by Femi Falana, two (2) panel sessions, a talk show presentation/performance by IA-Foundation beneficiaries, and an education poetic performance by 17-year-old UNESCO Youth Ambassador Tariq Lawal.  At the Summit, Femi Falana was appointed the grand Patron of IA-Foundation.

The summit identified a myriad of cultural, systemic, economic, historical and psychological factors responsible for the education crisis in Nigeria, with a streamlined focus on out-of-school children. Examples are high fertility and child reproduction rate, low investment and budgetary allocation, culture of entitlement, inherited educational system from Colonia masters which limited the nation’s Education, poor leadership and corruption, weak policy and constitution that supports education, weaponisation of poverty and illiteracy, insecurity and insurgency, limiting beliefs, inadequate parental support, religion and lack of national ethos and morality among several others.

Key recommendations made across all sessions include increased budgetary allocation, curriculum revamp, deployment of contextualised technology, collective participation and citizens’ social investment, constitution reform to prioritise education, hosting of national conference on education, promulgation of policy that penalises parents whose children are not in school, multi-sector engagement in resource mobilisation, reorientation, and suggestion of solutions. Grassroots development, mentorship, and capacity development, making Education free at all levels, prioritization of education and implementation of the 20-26% budgetary allocation recommended by UNESCO among several others. The summit also stressed the need for advocacy, mental transformation and national re-orientation among others. s

Keywords that capture the summit’s outcome include advocacy, accountability, social investment, shared visioning, collective participation, policy reforms and systemic upgrade. A comprehensive Communique will be developed and shared across all platforms.