In today’s knowledge-based world, education matters a lot. In fact, it is the single most important factor in national development, delivering better and faster services and simplifying everyday chores. In short, education makes life more liveable, functional and meaningful. Does it matter in Nigeria? On this, there is a big question mark, otherwise how else could anyone explain why about 24.9 million – representing about 60 per cent of our school-age children-according to Dr. Ahmed Modibbo Mohammed, the Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) are not in school, but roaming the streets, putting not just their future and the country as a whole in great jeopardy but endangering their lives as well as on these usually mean streets.

If this figure is correct and there is no reason to doubt it, coming as it does from the UBEC executive secretary, then it tells a lot about the country’s understanding of what education is and its place in the development process. It says a lot about a country that allows a staggering, nearly 25 million of its children to be out in the harsh, mean streets, instead of receiving lessons in the safety and comfort of a classroom. Only nations short-sightedly averse to the interests of her young ones and national development could live with this profoundly sorry state of affairs.

The question really is, why are these children, more than 24 million of them, not in school? How did the nation allow such a great number of school-age children to be out of school? Has it got to do with the inability of parents and guardians to pay fees charged? Or is it due to poor or lack of enlightenment campaigns, especially in the rural areas on the importance of education and hence the need for parents to enroll their wards in schools? Or maybe, has it to do with the assumption-clearly wrong though-but that is nonetheless gaining ground in some quarters and certain places that education no longer pays, especially given the present high level of unemployment among even graduates? If people cannot still find jobs, many years after graduating, it certainly does make the job of convincing parents to send to school and be more concerned with the education of their children more difficult.

Are our school environments conducive for learning? Are they equipped to produce an all-round student, in character and knowledge? For example, a school riven with cultism and rampant bullying of weaker students is hardly an attractive and friendly place for learning. The government has a compelling obligation to look into these issues and others with a view to addressing them comprehensively in order to reduce the growing number of school-age children who are unable to attend schools.

Twenty-four million children on the streets ought to be a source of worry to any nation, but particularly to a developing country as Nigeria, still grappling with a plethora of development needs such as health, education, employment and general infrastructure among others. These millions of kids in the streets add to our growing woes and we ignore them at our own peril. Indeed they form a huge pool of future time-bombs, with devastating consequences to our security and development. An illiterate populace would be a convenient recruiting ground for all sort of vices and criminal activities such as armed robbery, prostitutions and drug trafficking, not to talk of trouble-makers, who for a token fee or nothing at all, may be willing to be used to forment troubles that could undermine our national security, unity and socio-economic development.

Education pays a lot for the recipient and the society as a whole. The great nations of the world today owe their greatness in large part to education. The critical nature of human capital, rather than natural resources in the development strides of the West cannot be over-emphasised. It is for this reason, for example, that tiny natural resource-starved Israel is today among the most advanced countries in the world. Quality education has given it the ability and capacity to transform its arid desert into lush, blooming agricultural lands, ensuring not only its food security but also earning it billions of dollars in exports.

Cutting edge advances in the sciences, applied sciences and engineering have produced vaccines to cure malaria, small-pox, polio, prolong the lives of AIDS sufferers, send men and women into space, predict freak weathers and earthquakes. In short, education has made life a lot more comfortable, easier and longer for those who have correctly understood its importance and made the right investments in it. Of course it costs a lot to fund education, but then think of how much more ignorance costs.

There is so much to appreciate in educated citizens. They are net contributors to society as opposed to an illiterate ones who are largely dependent on society for a lot of their everyday needs. The question of illiteracy and its grave consequences for our overall individual and collective development ought to have been settled a long time ago. That in 2008, nearly fifty years after our independence the problem is still before us clearly suggests a nation that is yet to have a proper handle on the matter and a roadmap for national development. How unfortunate and tragic this state of affairs is for the country.

Out in that cold, unfriendly street is a potential Albert Einstein, 20th century greatest scientist or our own Philip Emeagwali, the world renowned computer expert. If we truly wants him or her to become a future Einstein or Emeagwali, so that not only does he or she become an asset to himself but also to the nation and the world at large, then let us get him out of that street and into a good classroom where the foundation for his future greatness can be properly laid. Let this be the clarion call of governments at all levels in the country today.