Pyrates advocate for out-of-school children

By Kadiri Christopher 

Benbow Seadogs 

In commemoration of World Literacy, members of a pan nationalist group known as the National Association of Seadogs (NAS) popularly referred to as Pyrates Confraternity have commenced collation of names of out-of-school children across Nigeria.

The members of the Benbow Deck trooped to the streets of Benin City in search of out-of-school children, locating the kids and having interactions on what could have been responsible for their dropping out of schools.

According to the Project Coordinator of the Benbow Deck, Dr Iyayi, "it is not the making of these kids to be out-of-school. A lot of factors are responsible for such.

Dr Iyayi speaking on reasons for
advocating for the out-of-school 
children 

"We know the primary cause is poverty, but other factors can be traced to death of parents/guardians, internally displacement caused by insecurity, among others.

"So, we are out to locate these children and see how we as an organization can return them to schools. So we are locating them and also going to maintain contact with their parents and or guardians in order to ensure the child is in school during school hours. This will help reduce or even eradicate child labour, child marriage, child abuse and child neglect", he said.

An out-of-school child

Dr Iyayi reiterated that the percentage of out-of-school children in Nigeria are really alarming and can cause and pose danger in the nation if not tackled early.

Some Benbow Deck Seadogs 
Looking our for out-of-school children 

Some of the children who responded to the Press spoke differently, pointing out the causes of their out-of-school reasons and a lot of them said they will be glad to return to school to join their mates and become useful in life.

A child spotted hawking
Instead of being school studying 

A touching situation arose when a child was spotted and when approached, he said he is an apprentice at a trading shop and that his boss said he can't go to school because an apprentice has no business in school. He said he will be glad to go to school in addition to his trade apprenticeship.

There were few others who preferred to go into crafts instead of returning to school.

Some out-of-school children 
clustered around a motor park

The theme of the 2025 World Literacy Day, as captured by the Benbow Deck of the NAS was, PROMOTING LITERACY IN THE DIGITAL ERA: BRIDGING THE GAP THROUGH MASS LITERACY and it is targeted at returning 1,000 out-of-school children back to school.