The dream of most children who successfully finish their primary education is to successfully get into a secondary school to continue their education.
For most children however, making the transition is a formidable challenge.
For 12-year-old David, who successfully scaled through LEA Primary School Kubwa II in July 2022, secondary education should have started for him in September 2022 when the new academic session began.
However, even as he celebrated finishing primary school and looked forward to his dream of secondary education, he knew that it would be a dream delayed by financial reasons.
“I don’t know how much it would cost for my parents to have me registered but I know it will be quite expensive and they don’t have the money now. So, I will resume during the second term.”
According to reports, it costs well above N30,000 to successfully process the registration of new students into JSS1 in government secondary schools within the Federal Capital Territory.
For many children like David whose parents have nothing doing beyond farming, raising such a sum is quite a challenge especially when his younger brother Bibi also has to start primary school at the same time.
For Wisdom, an eighteen-year-old who is trying to begin his senior secondary education, the story is one drenched in delay.
He did not start JSS 1 four years ago until the second term because of funds and having successfully completed his junior secondary education in July,2022, he is fighting tooth and nail to begin his secondary education this January.
“I have to raise the funds myself,” he says. “ I need over forty thousand naira for the registration, school fees and to purchase my books, bag and shoes.
“My mother has supported me with N10,000 but I have to raise the rest on my own. I have been able to raise some of it through decorating event venues but we have not been getting jobs this January and time is fast running out.”
It is clear that the gruelling poverty which is grinding down children and their families within the Federal Capital Territory is taking a toll on the education and well-being of children and teenagers.
When they eventually scrape together the money they need and resume school, they are forced to play catch-up. But it is better than nothing.
“I just want to start school,” David says. “I don’t want to have to stay at home every morning while my friends go to school.”
