Investigation: Why many children in Delta state abandon school on market days

Editor’s note: It has become a norm in some parts of Nigeria that school children are allowed to hawk goods on the street or market especially during the school hours. The reasons, however, may not be unconnected with poverty or ignorance about the importance of education.

In this article sent to NAIJ.com, Austin Oyibode, investigated on why most school children abandon their studies on market days in Delta state.

On this special day, many Nigerian children abandon school for a great project. Survey has shown that many public school children abandon school on market days.

Market days in rural communities are seen as days where many community school children do not go to school. Many school children in Delta were observed to be using the market days to join their parents in the market to make more sales and do some odd jobs to rake in more money.

Parents and teachers in the schools justify the action, describing it as necessary to keep the homes running. Delta state government initially had education marshals but the incumbent government has suspended them from action.

This is one of the village markets in Delta state, Credit: Austin Oyibode

“Today is market day uncle”was the response 11-year-old Chiemeke gave to NAIJ.com reporter, Austin Oyibode when he was asked why he was at the Illah waterside market doing odd jobs instead of being in school on Monday, July 10, 2017. The response of little Chiemeke was reminiscent of a typical Nigerian child who lives in the rural setting and must be in the market irrespective of what day of the week is.

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Chiemeke was seen carrying a bag of vegetables to the market. And in the market, he assisted his mother in shading and selling, this was even while school was in progress prior to vacation. When asked why he didn’t go to school being a school day, he responded: “I help my mother to sell these vegetables so that we could make money to get food. Every market day I don’t go to school. I come to market to sell.”

Illah is one of the rural communities in Oshimili North local government area of Delta state. On every market day, most of the children, rather than go to school, they go to the market to assist their mothers in selling wares and farm produce. Illah is primarily an agricultural community in the state.

As it is in Illah so it is in most rural communities in the country. On market days, most school children do not go to school, those that manage to go will go late because they must help their mothers to carry farm produce and wares to the market before leaving for school. Hence, they get late to school, probably after the first lesson may have gone.

Unlike the Roman calendar, the Nigerian traditional calendar has four weeks making a month and at times five, this means these communities have one market day occurring in every four days. From one rural community to the community, this market day differs even though they all operate with a general traditional calendar.

Some places visited like Cable (Hausa) market in Asaba have their market on Olie market day. Some others like the Asheke market in Ibusa have it on Eke market day. Some still have it on Nkwo while others have it on Afor. These are diverse market days but with the people having same culture and ways of life.

Investigation: Why many children in Delta state don’t go to school on market days, Credit: Austin Oyibode

Our reporter visited some of these markets and ended up at Ogbeogonogo market, the largest market in the city of Asaba, the Delta state capital. He also saw the Mami market along Federal College junction in Asaba.

These are markets where various farm produce are sold to both city and rural dwellers. In some of these rural markets, farm produce are bought cheaply, hence, most city market women go to these places to buy the farm produce and resell in the town markets.

For these communities, as Sunday is important to Christians and a Friday to Muslims, so also market days are important to the children and their parents, especially their mothers. For different people both within and outside the communities, the market days meant different things.

For the indigenes of such communities in Delta state, it’s a day where they get the opportunity to sell off huge quantities of their wares and produce at fair prices to outsiders.

For the outsiders, it’s a day they get the opportunity to buy foodstuff in bulk at cheaper prices, most times to resell at other places like Asaba, the state capital. For transporters, it is the day of the week when they do not have to wait long for passengers to and from the village markets.

In most of these village markets, foodstuff is unusually cheap and it’s time most city dwellers buy cheap foodstuff to resell in the city centres.

It is, however, important to point out that these particular days are also significance to school children resident within the communities. In a recent survey conducted by NAIJ.com prior to the close of the school year, it was discovered that on market days, most school children spend their days in the market, engaging in trade, selling for their parents, doing menial jobs, rolling wheelbarrows and carrying loads for market women. The reason, NAIJ.com gathered, is to make money to add to the upkeep of their homes.

Some of these children are seen helping their parents to sell vegetables such as pumpkin leaf and water-leaf, fruits like bananas, pear and oranges, while some engage in odd jobs like helping people carry the wares when they are either coming in or going out of the market.

This, they do to fetch money to add to the day’s sales and keep their homes running. And it is approved by their parents who feel happy that their children are contributing to the family upkeep.

Our reporter, who visited the local market in Illah community in Oshimili North local government area of Delta state, saw a fair presence of children of school age doing different kinds of trades in the market.

Further inquiry revealed that a good number of these children are students of different secondary schools, and that they deliberately absent themselves from schools on market days so that they could raise money to support themselves and their families.

The trend has become a norm which may be difficult to break. This is so because even most rural school teachers do no longer frown at it. One of the teachers at the government owned secondary school in the nearby community, Ugbolu, who preferred not to be named, told NAIJ.com that the trend is also observed among some teachers in the rural secondary schools.

According to her, on market days in Ugbolu, as well as the nearby Illah, students are usually few in the school. Besides students, she said teachers who leave Asaba for school in Ugbolu usually get to the market to buy fresh foodstuff without having to worry about extra transport costs.

“On some of these market days, many teachers, especially females, come late to school. Some of them might have gone to the market early to get the foodstuff they need before coming to school. But whatever happens, they eventually come to school even though they come quite late.

“The children who then indulge in such acts cannot be cautioned because the truth is that they are only trying to help their parents to make ends meet. Some of them who stay with relatives actually have no choice, they have to do these things as a way to earn their continuous stay with them and go to school,” she explained.

For her, the trend, though not good, could not be stopped as it would upset a lot of things. She is of the opinion that having the school located in the community, one could hardly disregard the community calendar. She likened forcing the children to comply with school rules to forcing them to come to school when the community has an activity like a festival.

Another teacher who merely gave her name as Jane, confirmed the practice among students, but insisted that it does not have adverse effect on their academic performance as the children and teachers are used to the system. According to her, most of these students involved are very intelligent and still have a way of updating their notes and keeping up with their colleagues when they come to school the next day.

“Before you even ask, most of them have already copied up the notes they missed, they have asked their mates to put them through a few things, and they have done the assignments. Most of them are in JSS2 and above.

"The younger ones are not really involved, and those senior students involved know their way around. Although it gives them double work because the market week works in a way that in every week, there must be one market day and about once in a month, we have two market days falling in one week.”

Mr. John Olue, a male teacher in Asagba Mixed Secondary Schools in Asaba, exonerated students in the city centres. He explained that to a large extent, the trend is mainly found in the rural areas, and not obtainable in the cities.

However, he pointed out that there are cases of students who come to school late on certain days with the excuse that they had to go to market first to sell some things for their parents.

He admitted that he had not taken time to note whether such days were market days or not, but there were students who habitually come to school late once or twice in every week – a behaviour which could be simply a result of truancy.

The 13-year-old Chiemeke who was found at the Illah waterside market carrying people’s wares, revealed that irrespective of whether the market day is on a Monday or any other day of the week, he always comes to make some money to assist his parents. Even his response to the question of why he was in the market on a school day suggested that it has become normal practice for him to be in the market at such a time.

He revealed that he is a student in the government owned secondary school in Ugbolu, and that his younger sister, Chiemerem, was also hawking a tray of bananas round the market since she could not carry heavy loads.

He noted that if they had to wait till school was over before they came, they would have missed the entire market and would not have an opportunity to sell off their farm produce and gather some money for their parents.

Investigation: Why many children in Delta state don’t go to school on market days, Credit: Austin Oyibode

These were the education marshals that were monitoring students’ movement prior to the incumbent administration

Mrs. Ajayi Agnes, a community woman, told our reporter that the mothers of the children are not selfish neither does the action constitute child abuse. She said the market days are days where many people come to the village market to buy a lot of things. And they needed the assistance of their children to help make good sales. For her, such practice is peculiar to the rural setting.

She noted that since most of those communities are farming and fishing communities, the market days are the days when outsiders come to buy their produce from them. “They cannot sell their products to their fellow villagers because they all have their farms too, so the only time they see people to sell it to at good prices is on market days.

"That is why they try to get as many hands as they could to go to the market and help them sell it off. These parents are not being selfish, they just want to make ends meet. People come from as far as Onitsha to these local markets to buy from them.”

She reasoned that even if some people might want to look at it as child labour, it is not so because even the children understand why they have to accompany their parents to the market, they understand that if they do not do it, they might not be sure of getting response when they ask for money for sandals, books and other school necessities. Beyond that, they might not even be sure of getting their next meal.

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The previous government of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta state established education marshals whose responsibility was to comb the entire city and villages and arrest school age children who fail to be in school at school hours.

The education marshals helped a great deal to sanitise the school system in those few years. This was done to the extent that as soon as the children see the marshals, they run to escape being arrested and taken to their custody for their parents to bail them.

A former student of the Institute of Continuing Education (ICE), Jane Morgan, commended the activities of the marshals. According to her, the marshals put the students on their toes as only the mention of the name education marshals, it sent shiver down the spine of the students. They are seen running to take cover or remove their uniforms as protection from being branded students.

But at the swearing in of the new administration, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa sacked the marshals and put them out of circulation. Commissioner for basic and secondary education, Chiedu Ebie, once said the marshals were not sacked but the scheme was suspended as it is being reviewed. But for more than a year now, no one has heard of the education marshals again. Hence, school children are free to walk freely whether on school hours or not.

Meanwhile, NAIJ.com had previously reported that Delta state government accused of neglecting some riverine communities in the federal government home grown school feeding programme.

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