Evaluating Child’s Rights in Nigeria: Implications on Rights’ Attainment and Education Achievement

Abstract

Many documents including domestic and international agreements on minors’ matters, with reference to general and child-specific, have informed both public and private that children are entitled to specific treatment generally and that in any critical situation, they are to be legally given assistance in the receipt of care and protection. This paper therefore focused on the rights every single child should have and/or possess as applicable in the global world. Six (6) higher institutions offering Early Childhood Care and Education were randomly selected with two hundred and ten (210) lecturers, adult caregivers and social workers in southwestern Nigeria. A descriptive research design of the ex-post facto type was adopted. Using legal documents, a 30-item self-developed questionnaire, tagged Child Rights Convention Scale (CRC Scale), was used to collect data. Using the test and restest method, 0.72 was obtained as the reliability coefficient. Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation was used to analyse data. Findings revealed that child’s rights are yet to be properly implemented and attained in Nigeria, based on non-robust reports of independent monitoring committees on the Child’s Rights Act (2003) in Nigeria. Therefore, some recommendations were given on how to remove many obstacles to child’s rights including the right to child education in Nigeria.