Clement Adeyi, Osogbo
Speaker of Osun State House of Assembly, Timothy Owoeye, has said the parliament would soon enact a law to peg secondary school leaving age at 18 years old.
Owoeye made this known on Thursday while delivering a goodwill message at the Osun Youth Agenda High-Level Stakeholder’s Policy Dialogue organised by Kimpact Development Initiative, a non-governmental organisation in collaboration with USAID, UKAid and NDI.
The speaker who condemned the attitude of parents towards the ages of their children and wards in terms of underage said: “The current practices of underage high school leavers without minimum required skills have contributed greatly to the rate of unemployment in the country.
“We will hold a public hearing to get the view of parents, students and education stakeholders. The bill if passed into law would checkmate the growing trend of underage secondary school leavers which later put some of the students into societal and psychological problems after graduation. The bill will better our system, make our youth productive and make our society better,” he said
Owoeye who compared the system with that of the developed countries, said those countries had put legal measures in place to ensure that such early high school leavers were productively engaged for some time before they were permitted to further their studies.
He assured that Osun would be the first to enact such law.
He promised to work with other state Houses of Assembly and the National Assembly to ensure that the law is adopted nationally.