Existential Realities of Out- of - School Children in Kano Metropolis: Implications for Policy Implementation in Nigeria

This study is an exploration of the menace of out-of-school children in Kano metropolis. The study used qualitative method of investigation to investigate the social economic conditions of the children, factors that keep them on the street and possible ways of taking them off the street back to school. Data revealed a harsh and deplorable living conditions of the children. It was also revealed that poverty, negligence by parents, high rate of divorce and ignorance on the part of parents are the major reasons why the children remain on the street. Taking the children out of the street would require effective implementation of social policies on family life, poverty reduction and the universal basic education act of 2004.

in the world more especially in the developing countries in Asia and African countries. According to UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS, 2018) there are about 258 million children and youth that are out of school in the world.
In Africa, it is estimated that more than half of the African continent population of about 700 million people are under the age of 25-30 and most are denied good education or training. About 300 million of 350 million school age children and youth are not on track to reach minimum level of the secondary school skills. Out of them, 240 million will not even achieve primary level learning and nearly 160 million are not at school at all. This means Africa is a home to one third of all children who are not learning around the world (Global Education Monitoring, 2017), Nigeria's National Policy on Education (2013) provides that the philosophy of Nigeria's education is based on the development of the individual into a sound and effective citizen and the provision of equal opportunities for all citizens of the nation at the basic, secondary and tertiary levels both inside and outside formal school system. Nigeria being a member of the United Nations and a signatory to many international treaties and conventions on the rights of the child to free and compulsory education, launched the Universal Basic Education (UBE) programme in 1999 with a view to providing quality basic education for all school age children irrespective of their economic, social, ethnic, religious or any other considerations. The UBE programme is meant to universalize access, improve quality and enhance equity in UBE delivery, especially through strengthening of partnerships with states, local governments and other critical education stakeholders (UBEC, 2019).
In order to give more bite to the policy, the UBE act (2004) was enacted to give legal backing to the implementation of the programme. Also, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) was established to coordinate federal efforts while State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) and Local Government Education Authorities (LGEAs) were also established with a view of domesticating the UBE act at the grassroot levels. The act provides that a parent who contravenes section 2(2) of the act commits an offence and is liable to on the first conviction, to be reprimanded; on second conviction, to a fine of N2000 or imprisonment for a term of 1 month or to both. Subsequent conviction attracts a fine of N5000 or imprisonment for a term of 2 months or both. Aside the UBE, many projects are being undertaken by the federal government, state government, United Nation (UN), UNICEF and other international agencies in order to reduce the frightening figures of out of school children in Nigeria.
However, in spite of this lofty ideas and programmes, Nigeria still has one of the largest number of out -of -school children in the world. According to Grace (2004), majority of children who dropped out completely from school move to hawking on the street, looking for incomes to survive and they are denied their educational opportunity. While some hawk before they go to school in the morning, some do the hawking in the evening after schools hours and some may not have the opportunity for formal education in their life time. Ugoduluwa and Anakwe (2004), stated that hawking in the main street by out of school children who's their ages ranges between 7-15years is highly detrimental to children kind of child abuse that endangers the health of the children, interferes with their education and deprived them of normal happy child hood life.
Economic predicament of most families has forced millions in Nigeria to find ways of supplementing their income. For poor families, children become the centerpiece of such decisions, thus, parents are exposing their children to various economic activities such as street hawking, hard labour and menial jobs, which finally hinders them from attending schools. Among the world out-of-school children, over two-third are in the south-west Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. However based on recent statistics, it appears that Nigeria carries close to 20 percent of the global burden. A survey conducted by the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund (UNICEF 2018) indicated that the population of out of school children in Nigeria remains around 10.5 million which is the highest number in the world. It implies that in every five of the world out of school children one is in Nigeria even though primary education is officially free and compulsory in the country. According to Sonny Echono, Permanent Previous studies on the plight of out-of -school children in Nigeria and in Kano have mostly been from the perspective of governments, non -governmental organizations, scholarly opinions and position papers on what can be done to alleviate their plight. This study, however, is a qualitative study aimed at exploring the day -to day life experiences of these children from their own perspective, The objectives of the research are to: i. To explore the social and economic conditions of out of school children in Kano State metropolis.
ii. To identify the factors that contribute to keeping the children out of school.
iii. To identify the possible ways taking out of school children back to school.

Conceptual Framework
According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2021), a child is a young human being below the age of puberty or below the legal age of maturity. Biologically, a child is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the development period of infancy and puberty. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) (2004) defines a child a minor as younger than the age of majority. Children generally have fewer rights and less responsibility than adults, they are usually unable to make serious decisions, and legally must be under the care of their parents or other responsible caregiver. During early childhood, children do learn through observation, experimenting and communicating with others and adults are expected to supervise and support the development process of the child, which then will lead to the child's autonomy. As children grow older into middle childhood and adolescent stages, they make new friends and gain new skills, which will enable them to www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/jecs Journal of Education and Culture Studies Vol. 5, No. 5, 2021 35 Published by SCHOLINK INC.
become more independent and enhance their individuality. During middle childhood, children are expected to enter the school years, where they are presented with a different setting than they are used to. In a school setting, they are supposed to start new social relationships, learn new skills and start to imbibe the values of the larger society.
Definition of a child differs from one society to another. In Singapore, for example, a child is legally defined as someone under the age of 14 under the "Children and Young Persons Act" whereas the age of maturity is 21 years old. In United States immigration law, a child refers to anyone who is under the age of 21. In Nigeria, any individual who is below the age of 18 is considered a child. The National Child Welfare Policy of 1989 defines a child as anybody who is below the age of 12 though the a draft decree promulgate afterwards set the age of a child in Nigeria as 18 years or below By virtue of being a child, the individual is supposed to be cared for by way of proper feeding, housing, clothing and education. The ideal existential reality a child is that he or she has the basic needs of life provided for him. In situations when this ideal is not attainable, the child has to face an ugly and challenging reality of fending for himself or herself.
Reality refers to all that exists in the universe and the way humans relate with them. Greg (2020) observed that reality may be mental or physical. When reality is perceived to be mental, we can best connect it through introspection and deep thinking that would show past experiences. Alternatively, humans perceive reality mentally through revelations in which cosmic mind is believed to communicate directly to the mind. When reality is perceived to be physical, reality becomes a matter of mass and energy. In other words, science becomes the avenue for us to know what is real. Everything in existence has their own reality. Human beings have their reality as stone has its reality. But do they have the same or similar reality? How do we have access to the reality of a being that do not communicate? The reality of non -living things is therefore what human being do with them or how they interact with them. Human beings can use stones in constructing their roads, building and the like, stones cannot do the same with human beings. Hence, the reality of human beings is incomparable to that of inanimate objects. Humans are sentient beings with feelings and ability to respond to stimuli in their environment. Physical reality of a group of people or society comprises the type of weather, climate, soil, water bodies, they are endowed with. Their social reality typifies the kinds of relationships that exists and that they cherish and respect. These may include family, friendship, neighborliness, community relations, nationhood, statehood and the like. Economic reality refers to the natural resource they have and how such resources are explored and allocated within members of society. Economic reality manifests in human conditions such as wealth, prosperity, poverty, development, underdevelopment, employment, unemployment and the like.
The word 'existential' is an adjective that could find applicability in three ways. First, it relates issues that pertain to human existence. Secondly, it could apply to perspective to an issue as conceived by existentialism as a philosophical movement. Thirdly, it could relate to an idea derived from experience rather than the one derived from reflections or theories. While allusion would be made to existentialism as a philosophical school of thought, the focus of this paper is exploration of concrete life experiences of out-of -school children in the street of Kano metropolis.
As posited by Kierkegaard (1962) and shelter. Once these needs are satisfied, we will be motivated by the need for safety and strive for an environment in which we feel physically and emotionally safe and secure. At the next level, we seek experiences that make us feel loved, cared for and accepted by others. We need to feel that we belong in a group. Beyond this, we will seek to feel good about ourselves, to feel appreciated and to receive feedback that leads to a positive self-image. Once these needs are met we will seek to meet other, higher order needs, referred to as "self-actualization" encompassing the need to seek new knowledge and understandings, the need for aesthetic experiences, the need to use our talents to the full and challenge ourselves to "be the best we can be". All humans can and do move up and down this hierarchy of needs at different points in their lives.

Methodology
Qualitative research method is the adopted in conducting this study. Qualitative research is the process of collecting and analyzing non-numerical data (e.g., text, video, or audio) to understand concepts, opinions, or experiences (Tashakkori, & Teddlie, 1998). Qualitative research relies on data obtained by the researcher from first-hand observation, interviews, questionnaires, focus groups, participant observation, recordings made in natural settings, documents, and artifacts.

Participants
The participants were ten (10) children of school age but who were not in school. They were mostly street hawkers, and beggars rooming the streets. Out of the ten (10) out-of -school children who participated in this research, three (3)  objectives of the study and their consent sought. They were assured of the confidentiality of whatever information provided in the course of the study. The 12 participants were those who consented freely to participate in the study.

Instrumentation
For the purposes of this research work interview schedule was developed and used to collect the data from the participants. The interview schedule was developed by the researcher and validated an expert in Sociology and another expert in Educational Psychology. Through direct contact with the victims of Out of School Children within Kano metropolis. Aside the initial reconnaissance and familiarization, each of the interviews spanned around 30 to 45 minutes. The interview took place in the area where and when the participants liked it to happen.

Data Analysis
Data analysis in qualitative research is the process of reducing large amount of data collected in order to make sense of them. Hatch (2002) defined it as the organization and interrogation of data in way that enables the researcher to see patterns, identify themes, discover relationships, develop explanations, interprets, critiques, and generate theories.
Data for this study were collected in Hausa language. The data were transcribed and later translated into the English language. After transcribing the collected data, the researcher coded the data in a way that gives meaning, patterns and connections among the data in a way that provides an understanding of the research questions.

Settings
Kano metropolis is the second largest industrial and commercial center in Nigeria. It is therefore experiencing a rapid growth rate from pre-colonial to post-colonial era. The total area of Metropolitan

Social economic condition of the out -of -school children
The responses of the participants to the question on their socio-economic wellbeing revealed their harsh, poor socio -economic conditions. All the children had to depend on themselves for their daily needs.
Some of them were also under pressure to provide for their parents or grandparents who are mostly aged or sick. They were not in school because they had to feed, clothe and house themselves. Most of them were not living with their parents and the few that lived with their parents also needed to provide for themselves. They live in large dilapidated or uncompleted buildings and they relied heavily on food vendors for the food supply. They all engage in one economic activity. All of them had at one time or the other engaged in street begging in order to source take off capital for the small business they were engaging in on the streets. On the average they made N400 (less than one dollar) in a day.
In the words of one the participants:

What are the factors that keep the children out of school?
Responding to the question on why they were not enrolled in school, the participant expressed their desire to be enrolled in school but they could not because some of them are orphans and those who had parents lack parental support. The parents either do not know the value of education or they do not have the wherewithal keep the children in school. The biggest challenge most of the children are facing is how to meet their basic needs of food when they attend schools. They tend to remain on the street hawking so as to get their food since the parents are not there for them.
In the words of one the children: They however, contended that the government seems to be overwhelmed by the scale of problem considering the population of the children. They attribute the plight of the children to poor parental background, high rate of divorce and lack of conducive learning environment in schools.

What are the possible ways to get the children out the street?
The participants, both the children and the government officials were asked what they think can be done to get the children enrolled in schools. The children had little to say in this regard as some of them simply responded that they did not know what to do. Some of them however, solicited for government and non-government support in order to get them enrolled in school. The officials placed a lot of the burden on government, community leaders and wealthy people in the community. One of them had this

Discussion of Findings
From the finding of this study, it can be seen that the menace of out -of -school children is more of a social problem than an educational problem. Many of the children are out of school due to the lack of parental care and negligence, poverty, death of parents, divorce and so forth. This is in line with the www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/jecs Journal of Education and Culture Studies Vol. 5, No. 5, 2021 42 Published by SCHOLINK INC.
assertion of Ihejirika (2013) that, factors such as child abandonment, family inability to feed their children and provide their needs for education, clothing as causes of increase in the number of out-ofschool children. He further notes that the family plays the function of giving the child early foundation in his learning process right at home but due to the economic situation of many families, many Nigerian are either not educated at all, or stop schooling because their parents could not afford to send them to school, some children are not able to attend any educational institution or have to stop school on the way or drop-out of school because of the irresponsibility of their parents. Anderson (1980)  Kano. This also is in the line of this research findings whereby socioeconomic of majority of this research respondents shows that economically and socially they are not comfort and they are living in devastation environment.

Implications for Policy Implementation
Almost of the issues that are associated with the menace of out-of-school children as identified in this study, are social in nature. Hence, there is the need for the Nigerian state to review some of its social policies It is also noteworthy that Nigeria's problem is not lack of policies but rather lack of political will to implement the policies. Many lofty policies are not being implemented or not properly implemented for political, cultural and religious consideration. The problem of out-of -school children in Nigerian streets is an existential problem not just for the children but for the entire society because of the spiral effect which such a mass of uncultivated and uncared for people would have on the peace and security of the nation in the near future. The society is already witnessing the consequences by a surge in insecurity across the county especially in the North. Hence, the government and the citizens should see addressing this challenge as matter of life and death. Existing social, economic and educational policies need to be activated in the following areas: Family/marital laws need to be strengthened. The government needs to show more interest in the capacity of intending couple to shoulder the responsibility of child rearing by way of providing the basic needs of the unborn child needs to institute to control marriage and procreation. Necessary checks should be done to ensure that intending couples have what it takes to take care of child. There is also the need for mandatory pre -marital counselling in the areas of life skills, population education, family planning education. It is a fact that culture and religion have a strong influence when it comes to the issues of marriage and raising children. However, educating and re orientating people before marriage as a mandatory requirement would be beneficial. With proper orientation, intending couples would learn to live a more responsible life by having the number of children they can afford to cater for.
Poverty is at the root of the menace of street children in the study area and in the larger Nigerian society. This implies that existing poverty reduction programmes needs to shift focus to 'uneducated', illiterates, low income earners as they represent the larger proportion of those who contribute to the menace of out -of-school children in the Nigerian society. At the moment, a lot of the attention are being given to young graduates while the uneducated are largely left out. That could be responsibility why all the efforts of the government towards poverty reduction appear like a drop in the ocean.
The government should adopt a carrot and stick approach in the implementation of the UBE act (Jabaar,2019). School feeding programme is a good (carrot approach) initiative that seems to be working. Also a comprehensive enlightenment and re -orientation programmes should mounted across the country to sensitize the populace on the importance of basic education. However, these should be complemented with a stick approach of prosecuting erring parents in line with the extant laws in order to serve as deterrent for others. As it is now, the law is just existing in the books.

Conclusions
Findings from this study have shown that the existential reality of out-of -school children in the study are was that of harsh social economic condition. The children could not be in school because they had to provide their own basic needs of food, shelter and clothing as their parents are either dead, in abject poverty or simply insensitive to their plight.