This Programme Lets Parents In Lagos Pay School Fees With Plastic Bottles

One in every five of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria. And as of December 2018, 13.2 million children were reported to be out of school in Nigeria — the highest number of out-of-school children on the planet.

Poverty is an important factor in the pattern of educational marginalization, so the RecyclesPay Educational Programme is stepping in to help more children get an education.

This Nigerian initiative lets parents pay for their children’s school fees by recycling plastic waste pic.twitter.com/vDQe4FYce2

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) June 9, 2019

A brainchild of the African Cleanup Initiative (ACI), the programme enables parents in Nigeria’s slums to pay for their kids’ school fees by gathering its equivalent in recyclables, like plastic bottles, water sachets and cans.

Parents deliver recyclables to the school. The school, working with ACI representatives, inspect and weigh the recyclables before handing over to the recycling firm assigned to them. The recycling firm then pays the cash directly into the school’s account.

(Photo: TechNext)

The cost of the school fees determines the number of recyclables expected of each parent, and they are only allowed to pay a part of the fees in recyclables. 70 pupils of Morits International School in Ajegunle have already benefitted from the programme.

The programme, which will be extending to more schools in September, aims to benefit at least 10,000 children by 2025. The ACI is doing this in partnership with several recycling companies like Lasgidi Recyclers, Greenhill Recycling and WeCyclers.