False Generosity and the Out-of-School Children Conundrum in Nigeria: Assessing Media Strategies for Promoting Optimal School Enrolment

Abstract

At the centre of human development is education, which takes diverse forms and is critical during the formative years of the human person. This underscores the essential role that education plays in people’s lives. As a fundamental human right, education occupies the fourth spot in the sustainable development goals, which aim to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all and promote lifelong learning opportunities. For decades, governments and multilateral donor agencies have expended resources to meet society's educational expectations. In Nigeria, these efforts have not produced the desired outcomes. With approximately 10.5 million children out of school as of January 2022, Nigeria remains among the nations with the highest rates of out-of-school children. Leveraging a combination of a survey, document analysis, and a critical review of extant literature, this paper argues that the efforts of governments and other multilateral donor agencies to eradicate the challenge of out-of-school children are, at best, false generosity. The study, therefore, re-emphasizes the need for the media to rediscover its social responsibility function and leverage the traditional media of flyers, handbills, posters and community radio in communicating the need for formal education and consequently ebb the tide of out-of-school children in Nigeria.