Abia state government has disclosed plans to begin a hunt for children who are usually not in school during school hours.
Gatekeepers News reports that Goodluck Ubochi, the state commissioner for basic and secondary education, said Abia’s education marshals will commence the hunt on March 1, 2025.
The commissioner made the announcement on Tuesday during a press conference ahead of Abia school’s transformation programme launching on February 26.
Ubochi said pupils not found in school during school hours would be arrested and used to apprehend their parents who would be punished.
According to him; the government would enforce school attendance by pupils because it has invested in giving them a better education.
The commissioner noted that a planned transformation of Abia schools through innovation would begin with 221 out of the state’s 1,600 schools.
He said, “We have marked out 221 schools, 10 primary schools and five secondary schools from each of the 17 local government areas.”
In January 2025, Abia began free and compulsory education for children up to the junior secondary school level.
The state said the initiative is to align with Abia State Child Rights Law of 2006, which mandates compulsory basic education.
To enforce it, The state government empowered a set of education marshals to identify and address truancy among school-aged children.
The state added that it has allocated 20 per cent of the 2025 budget to the education sector.
