Stakeholders’ Contributions to Education in Kaduna City, Nigeria: Perceptions of Displaced Children and Local Stakeholders.

• In Event: Early childhood/primary ed

Proposal

Out of the 27 million children estimated to lack access to basic education in situations of emergency, considerable numbers of them are internally displaced (Mooney & French, 2005). The Internally Displaced Monitoring Centre (IDMC) reported that there are almost 2,152,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Nigeria, and Kaduna State alone has 36,976 IDPs (IDMC, cited in Mmahi, 2016). More than 56% of the total IDP populations are children—half of which are up to 5 years old. Nearly all of Nigeria’s IDPs were displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency (Biola, cited in Mmahi, 2016; Obikaeze & Onuoha, 2016).
The most vulnerable members of society during displacement are children (Daget, 2011), due to their high level of dependence on parents and family members. As a result, the children detach from school, often putting a permanent stop to their education if no timely intervention is available. The ever-increasing insurgency attacks are adding to the population of out-of-school children in Kaduna State. The state will continue to suffer socially, economically, and politically unless meaningful interventions are devised to circumvent the situation.
Hence, this study investigated the contributions of government, non-governmental organizations, and philanthropists toward the education of the internally displaced children in Kaduna City.


We adopted a descriptive survey design for this study. The population consisted of the 109 internally displaced children resident in the four identifiable IDP centers within Kaduna City during the data collection period of this study. Three IDP centers (Barkan, Badarawa – Lau and Kudenda) were selected using convenience sampling, based on the locations and security of the IDP sites. The total sample size for the children is 41, which is 50% of the 83 displaced children living in the three centers. We used children not less than 5 years old for the study. 24 (59%) of the sampled children are male and 17 (41%) are female. 5 (12%) of the displaced children are 5 years old, 15 (37%) children are 6-12 years old and 21 (51%) children are 13-18 years old. Seven stakeholders – representative from the Government (SEMA Kaduna), four NGOs (Pastor Burun’s NGO, NAWOJ Kaduna - National Association of Women Journalists, ARFON NGO Kaduna - ARRRIDE Relief Foundation Nigeria, and Ibrahimas NGO), and two philanthropists (Senator Shehu Sani and NUC Chairman Kaduna) – also participated in the study. Parents or Guardians assisted the children between the ages of 5-12 years old in responding to the questionnaire while children between the ages of 13 -18 years responded to the questionnaire themselves.
We visited the identified IDP centers with two local journalists familiar with the centers who provided Hausa translation. We developed questionnaires for the children and stakeholders. Experts in educational management helped to ensure the validity of the instrument.
After collecting data, we analyzed the data using descriptive statistics, such as means, frequency counts, simple percentages and standard deviations.

The study showed that a large proportion (71%) of the displaced children are not currently enrolled in any type of education (either formal, non-formal or informal). Among the children, 8 (20%) were enrolled in primary school before the displacement, 25 (60%) were enrolled in junior secondary, and 8 (20%) were enrolled in senior secondary. Among the children, 38 (93%) of them are Muslims and 3 (7%) are Christians. The result of this study is consistent with the finding of the International Organization for Migration (2015) that in 19 out of 42 displacement camps in Nigeria, children did not have access to any formal or non-formal education in June 2015.
The study found that majority of the stakeholders concentrate more on the provision of food (86%) and shelter (57%) than education (43%) for the internally displaced children. This result corroborates the assertion of Ferris and Winthrop (2010) that education is less likely to be available in the emergency phase of displacement as international and national actors focus on security and provision of the basic necessities of life.
Most of the children said that the government (95%) and NGOs (49%) never provide money for internally displaced children’s education. Additionally, most said that philanthropists (66%) rarely provide money for educational purposes. A large proportion of the children said the government (98%) never provides educational materials to facilitate their learning. Children said that philanthropists and NGOs rarely provided educational materials to enhance internally displaced children’s learning (63% and 61%, respectively). The majority of the children said government (92%) and NGOs (49%) never supply teachers towards their education. 5 % of them reported that philanthropists provide teachers for their education.
The opinions of the children were contradicted by the responses of the stakeholders in some aspects. The majority of the stakeholders said that the government, NGOs and philanthropists always supply teachers (57%) and technical advice, professional service and other logistics (57%) towards the IDC’s education. Most (57%) of them said that volunteers are regularly trained to augment supply of teachers. Surprisingly, most (57.1%) of the stakeholders admit that they have never provided enough money to meet their educational needs, but there is a mixed view among the stakeholders concerning the supply of materials to the children in the IDP centers. The stakeholders might contradict the responses of the children to cover up their ineffectiveness, as Eweka and Olusegun (2016) reported that government officials and IDPs Management agencies in Nigeria frequently obstruct international aid efforts, embezzle relief funds, and waylay supplies meant for IDPs.


The study discovered that the contributions of government, NGOs and philanthropists towards the education of internally displaced children are not sufficient. Therefore, there is need for adequate provision of educational resources to ensure every internally displaced child is given access to education. Future research should examine the contributions of stakeholders to the education of IDCs in other states in Nigeria. Formal centers should also be included in future studies, as this study used the informal IDP centers only.

Authors

• Bodunrin Ifeoluwa Akinrinmade, Florida State University

• Damilola Rebecca Adejumo, University of Ibadan