Education, Featured

Screaming on top of their voices as they hummed each stanza of the local nursery rhyme, children as young as three smiled excitedly as the process went on that morning. With sounds from the school’s almost rickety drum powerfully whipped by a pupil providing background percussion and melody, it was the perfect way to start another day of learning for many of the children at Whayinna School. Tucked in the heart of Makoko, a shack settlement sitting at the foot of the Lagos lagoon overlooking the Third Mainland Bridge, the institution is one of a growing number of schools in the community trying to set a virile foundation for dozens of the area’s children deprived in many aspects.

But while scores of Whayinna’s pupils were already seated in their classes as early as 7:30am, a few metres away were a band of boys paddling away in a canoe. Heading towards the deepest parts of the lagoon, theirs is a life revolved around fishing nets, hooks and everything related to the sea. Though the singing of pupils from the nearby school sometimes arrests their attention, the allure of quick money promised by their vocation is perhaps too strong for their minds to be swayed in another direction.

During a visit to the sprawling costal community recently, one of our correspondents discovered how many of Makoko’s growing army of boys aged between eight and 12 were now dumping the classroom for fishing. Though the vocation is the main source of livelihood of the people here and in fact an integral part of their culture, many of the children before now embraced education and only engaged in fishing as a side ‘hustle’. However, in recent times, that appears to have changed especially since economic survival for many families and individuals across the country became stiffer. Many of the boys after fishing for hours, head to the nearby market to trade it off for cash – sometimes as much as N5,000 per day depending on the size and calibre of catch.

“Three hours on the sea searching for fish can fetch me and my parents N5,000 at the end of a day, so why do I need to go and waste my time in the classroom reading books,” nine-year-old Samson Dosa, one of the boys one of our correspondents came across during the visit, asked sharply. His age betrays his sense of reasoning and business.

“I started fishing at the age of four by always following my father to the sea. He taught me the techniques of fishing and handling the boat. Since then, this has become my life,” he added.

But despite his deep attachment to fishing these days, Dosa had once set foot in a school before. In fact, he craved going there every day. The little boy wanted to become a doctor after hearing and falling in love with the way medical doctors were respected in Nigeria and other parts of the world. However, he gave up on the dream due to lack of finances to sponsor his education properly. Today, Dosa’s priorities are quite different.

“I really would love to own a big ship where I could sail on sea and catch plenty fishes,” he said. “I would love to be a big fisherman, just like the ones I see in movies. I want to become known all over the world.

“Though I am young, I am not scared of the sea. I love to fish because it is what my father and elder brothers taught me. This is my wish,” he stated.

Knowing well the importance of education in the life of an individual, the nine-year-old has not lost hope of sitting in a classroom again. The memories of his last experience, though a while ago, remain fresh on his mind.

“I would love to go to school so that I can read and write and also help my father with his business.

“A lot of people who patronise him tend to cheat him because he is not educated. If I am able to go to school and read and write, I would be able to protect him from those people.

“I am helping my father with his fishing business so that he can raise the money needed to send me back to school. Though it is tough, I have been used to this life,” he added.

A few metres from Dosa was 10-year-old Daniel Whikin that morning when one of our correspondents visited the area. Untangling his fishing net in preparation for casting it into the sea, the young boy flashed a quick smile as he was thrown the first question by the reporter. In addition to explaining why he was not in school that morning like the other children at Whayinna and the handful of other academic centres in the area, Whikin said that fishing was the only thing he knew and that gave him joy and hope in life.

“Before my father died two years ago, we always went fishing together,” he began. “He taught me how to fish from a very tender age and that is why I can do it on my own now.

“I always go to the water at night to set a trap for the fishes, I leave my net in the water in a particular spot, then come back in the morning. By that time, a lot of fish would have been caught.

“There are times when I return in the morning, the net would be empty or might have captured few fishes.

“After catching fish, my mother sells them to traders who come into the community to buy from us.

“Since my father died, I have become the man of the house, so I have to fish for us to have money to survive.

“Though I attend a school in Adekunle, close to Makoko, it is always tough coming up with the money to pay for books and other related fees.

“It is for this reason that for some time now, I have not attended school. Even my sister has not been attending classes regularly. Until I am able to raise enough money through fishing, things would remain the same,” he said.

Topozhim and Gandonu are two boys of the same parents that have also chosen fishing nets above formal education in this Lagos community. In company with their father last Tuesday morning when one of our correspondents visited the area, the children took turns to cast the huge net in their canoe into the sea in search of an impressive catch. They had been at it all morning with only little to show for their efforts.

The older of the two boys – Topozhim – 13, though wished to be in school on that day, circumstances beyond his control had ensured that he remain stuck to fishing.

“School has resumed and I would really like to join my peers there but my father didn’t allow me,” he disclosed angrily as one of our correspondents engaged him in a brief chat. “My father has made it compulsory that I come along with him whenever he is going fishing.

“I love to fish but I do not want to take it up as a career. I want to go to school and become somebody great but my dad is preventing me from doing so.

“The few times I have attended school in the past, I usually sneaked to go there because if my father finds out, it is going to be a big problem.

“The few times I have attended school, I did so through the help of my mother and brother. They try to cover up for me when my father asks after me.

“Although my father is aware that I go to school, he usually scolds me whenever he sees me in a school uniform. I am really not happy about the whole situation,” he said.

Though little Topozhim has been keeping some money aside for his education in future without the knowledge of his father, he fears that he may never be able to achieve his dreams of becoming a pilot if things remain the way they are.

“I have been keeping some money with my mother from what we make from the sale of fish at the end of each day but I don’t know what would happen to that if my father finds out.

“I work more than four hours on the sea every day in search of fish. Sometimes we are exposed to rain and sun but have to continue until our father says it is okay. I am praying God to help me out so that I can go to school,” the 13-year-old added.

When asked why he does not want his son to acquire formal education, the father of the boys, who refused to mention his name to Saturday PUNCH, said that as far as he was concerned, fishing was the best legacy he could hand down to his children.

“I am a fisherman; my father was a fisherman, so I expect my children to follow in his footsteps as well.

“I do not see any sense in them going to school when they can equally make a living from fishing. Topozhim is not the only child I have; I have others I have to cater for. So, they must all support me in fishing to be able to take care of the family,” he said.

Also starting out by learning the rudiments of fishing in this coastal community as early as age four, David Damasu, another 13-year-old in Makoko, is building his future away from the classrooms. Unlike the others, who are divided between two and more ideas, he has since switched allegiance to tailoring. Damasu told Saturday PUNCH that making clothes for people is where his heart lies and that fishing was only a stop gap for him.

“My dream is to become a tailor,” he said. “I want to make clothes for people and see them happy. That is my goal in life; I am not interested in education.

“Though I am currently into fishing, I am doing so to be able to raise enough money to buy the sewing machine I would need upon graduating from tailoring training.

“I have to also try and get a shop to make it more convenient for me. So, I am doing this just to save up more money before that time comes,” he stated.

Eight-year-old Hasca Comperpice is another boy in Makoko whose heart has drifted far away from the classroom. Even though his mother is willing to support his education and give him proper direction in life, his love for fishing and the proceeds derived from the vocation so far have made it hard for that to be a reality. Casting his first net into the sea at four, the eight-year-old has come a long way since those early days, mastering the art in the process.

“Some of my friends go to school but I do not see the need for that,” he said. “My mother always drives me out of the house to go to school but I always end up finding myself fishing. I think this is my life and I like it,” he added before bursting into laughter.

But while pouring out her frustration at the development during a chat with one of our correspondents, Comperpice’s mother, Duwe, said she was afraid her son could be denying himself of future opportunities as a result of his refusal to go to school.

“I really would love for him to go to school because I know education is very important,” she said. “At the same time, I cannot force him if he decides not to go to school.

“Though fishing is a very good occupation, I know it would not be able to carry him far in life without education.

“Hasca is a good boy who loves to be on the sea all the time but I would wish for him to have a change of heart and consider going to school. If he does that, I’ll be very happy with him,” the mother of five added.

Faced with deprivation of all kinds, many children in Makoko community are robbed of the opportunity to experience formal education especially during their formative years. Apart from being forced into strenuous vocations like fishing by their parents and guardians in a bid to shore up the family’s income, dozens in this category have increasingly lost the urge to choose this path due to the freedom they are given to decide what they want in life. As a result, the settlement now houses bands of little boys, who clutch on to fishing nets at periods they should be in classrooms.

In its recent statistics, the UNICEF disclosed that there were around 10.5 million children out of school in Nigeria – the highest in the world. Though it said primary school enrolment increased in recent years, net attendance, it posited, stood at only about 70 per cent. Experts, however, warn that with many children like those in Makoko and other impoverished communities across the country unwilling to embrace formal education, the figure could shoot higher in the coming months and years.

Describing Nigeria’s out-of-school children rate as alarming and an issue of urgent national intervention, an educationist and Founder, International Educational Management Network, Dr. Onyeka Jaivbo-Ojigbo, told Saturday PUNCH that except something was done to address the situation, the country’s future could be threatened by this sad development.

“Over the years, government has not really lived up to its duty of providing school for Nigerian children. This has resulted to all these problems we see in the country today.

“For those boys at Makoko, fishing is the only life they know and you cannot blame them. If you want them to value education or to think in another way, we have to do some work.

“We need to start sensitising out-of-school children like the ones in Makoko on why they need to go to school. We need to let them know that with education, they can even become better fishermen.

“Education is a passport to a better world. So, if we tell them and they understand, I don’t think they will resist going to school.

“Education is the key to national development. If we fail to have more children in school, we would be endangering our future as a society,” she said. – Punch

– Oct. 6, 2018 @ 12:45 GMT |

Tags: Harsh life of Makoko children torn between schooling and fishing