Abstract:
The phenomenon of street children has been described as one of the serious growing social problems
in Nigeria. The phenomenon of street children has come to stay as a permanent feature of societies
across the globe. This implies that whatever effort is made to salvage the situation should emphasize
taking the immediate needs of these children to them on the streets rather than eradicating street
children. This is the reason why this paper advocate for the empowerment of street children through
the instrumentality of non-formal education and counselling. The paper argued that living alone, lack
of education, poor nutrition, diseases, homelessness, poverty, destitution, exploitation, and substance
abuse among others are common features of street children. The paper concludes that street children
can be empowered through the exploration of potentials of non-formal education and counselling such
as basic literacy, post-literacy, vocational skills, health and nutritional education, destitution education,
rehabilitation, and abode education
