Birth Certificate Now Compulsory For School Admission In Ondo

The governor of Ondo State, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has said that birth certificate is now compulsory for school and hospital admissions.

He disclosed this on Tuesday at a stakeholder’s meeting on birth registration in Akure, Ondo state capital.

The governor said the National Population Commission’s (NPC) birth certificate rule also applies to children under the age of five seeking free treatment in government-owned hospitals.

Akeredolu said that birth certificate will now be a prerequisite for the enrolment of any child into primary schools and hospital admission across the state.

He added that the measure became necessary in other to enable the state plan ahead, stressing that parents should register their children for accelerated development in the state.

“If we do not have child birth registration, we cannot plan properly. Every child must have genuine birth certificate now before entering primary schools in Ondo state,” he said.

The governor, who described the programme as a great initiative, however appealed to communities and religious leaders as well as NPC to improve on advocacy and awareness of birth registration in their domains.

 The governor’s wife, Mrs. Betty Akeredolu, said she was worried that almost half of children under five years in the state are not considered in socio-economic planning and are therefore at risk of lacking access to basic social amenities that could ensure adequate child development.

Speaking further, she said that Ondo State has one of the worst birth registration coverages in the South-West as only 68% of the children were registered.

“No more will our children be without an identity; no more will our children lack access to social infrastructure. They are our children and they must be planned for,

“To improve birth registration, I believe the participation of women in the birth registration framework is quintessential. The reason is simple, women are the first care-givers and they determine to a large extent what their children get,” she said.