Rihanat Kolawole should have been in class. Instead, the 15-year-old was weaving through a dusty market in Olodo, an area in Oyo State, South-West Nigeria, clutching a small nylon bag of pepper her mother had sent her to deliver, right in the middle of school hours. For Rihanat, an SS1 student at Community High School, Alakia Isebo, Olodo, this trade-off between education and survival is not unusual. She often juggles school with helping her parents. Her mother is a petty trader, her father a motor park messenger, and their combined income is barely enough to support the family, let alone cover school expenses.
