FlexiSAF, a non-governmental organization, has urged the federal government to fully implement its free education for everyone agenda.
The goal of FlexiSAF as a collective is to give the less fortunate people in society access to free education.
Amina Abubakar, Executive Director of the FlexiSAF, appealed to experts and industry stakeholders on Saturday at a “Walk for Education 3.0” in Abuja about the need to increase access to basic education nationwide.
“Today, our target is that we want to implement the free education for all. The government says education is free, basic education is free. But a lot of children are not in school because it is not free,” she said.
While noting that the country has the highest number of out-of-school children in the African sub-region, Mrs. Abubakar added that the target of the organisation was to ensure that at least 600 children get back to school.
“After we achieve that, part of our future plans is to make this work bigger, even more strategic. The more we get embedded into the space, build our capacity, we would make it more and more big,” she said.
She called for support from the government and other relevant stakeholders to achieve the goal of FlexiSAF.
“I want to reiterate the theme for this year, which is ‘2030 and the horizon.’ We are trying to get better each and every year. Kindly come to our tables to make a commitment to help children go back to school. As you can see, the children you have seen here are from our accelerated learning program. It is a non-formal learning programme that helps kids in the community.
“The children don’t have to go to school everyday for long hours, so we have community acceptability. Instead of learning for nine years, these over aged children can learn in three years. So you may be wondering what kind of expertise does this FlexiSAF Foundation have that they are giving education meant for nine years in three years. What kind of madness is that?
“I am telling you, it is not madness. It’s true! In fact, it is a nationally approved accelerated education curriculum. It is also called accelerated basic education. Instead of learning in nine years these children learn in three years.
“The Foundation was established in 2018 and so far, we have supported more than 5,000 children and with your support, we can do more,” she said.
And with just N60,000 per annum, a child can be assured of quality education, Mrs. Abubakar added.
