By Chinenye Akpagbue

Some children in Ozoro, Isoko North Local Government Area of Delta State, are trading the classroom for dustbins as poverty and unpaid school fees keep them away from school.

During an evangelism outing with my brothers, sister and my mentor Mr Prince Charlie, we encountered some of these children moving from one dustbin to another, searching for plastic materials they could sell to make money.

Mr Prince Charlie called them and asked why they were not in school. Some of them explained that they had been sent away from school because they could not afford their school fees at Amawe nursery and primary school.

The response was simple, but it revealed a deeper struggle.
At a time when children should be learning, playing with their classmates and building dreams for the future, some are instead searching through waste for materials that can put a little money in their hands.

The sight was disturbing. While other children were heading to school with their books and pens, these children were moving from one dustbin to another, picking plastic waste.
Their situation highlights how poverty can affect a child's access to education. For families struggling to meet their daily needs, school fees can become another burden they are unable to carry.

When children are sent away from school because their parents cannot pay, the consequences go beyond missing classes. It can gradually separate them from their education and expose them to situations where survival becomes more important than learning.

Education should not be a luxury. Every child deserves the opportunity to sit in a classroom, hold a pen and have the chance to build a better future.

The encounter in Ozoro has remained with me because it showed, in a very simple but painful way, what happens when poverty stands between a child and education.

For some children, the journey from the classroom to the dustbin is not a choice but a consequence of circumstances beyond their control.