On Monday, June 16, the African continent celebrated the Day
of the African Child. This year’s edition is celebrated in Nigeria amid
the misery endured by parents of abducted schoolgirls from Chibok, Bornu
State. Expectedly, therefore, the Chibok girls abduction has dominated
the news with stakeholders calling for increased protection of school
children writes ENO-ABASI SUNDAY.
As if playing host to a record 10.5 million out-of-school children (the highest in the world) was not enough reason to make Nigerian policy makers and political leaders get ingenious and explore ways of ameliorating the situation, mounting safety concerns in public schools across the country, especially in the North East, have succeeded in making worse, a bad scenario.
In this direction, the Chibok schoolgirls abduction, which happened over two months ago, like a nightmare, which it is, has refused to go away even as the Federal Government appears to be at its wit’s end regarding retrieving the bewildered students.
It was in this grim scenario that Nigeria joined the rest of the continent to celebrate on Monday, the Day of the African Child.
June 16 every year is celebrated as the Day of the African Child. It was set aside by the defunct Organisation of African Unity (OAU) now African Union (AU).
The celebration, which has been in place on the continent since 1991, is in honour of South African students, who participated in the 1976 Soweto uprising under the then apartheid regime in South Africa in the course of which several of them were killed.
The students were protesting the poor quality of education and demanding their right to be taught in their own language before they were brutally hacked down by the South African police. Expectedly, that brutal exercise gave birth to immense international outrage.
With “Right To Participate: Let Children Be Seen And Heard,” being the theme of this year’s celebration, the ceremony generated increased awareness about the need to promote emotional and mental health of African children.
The April 15, 2014 abduction of more than 200 girls from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Bornu State by Boko Haram insurgents, in a way casts a pall on the future of girl-child education in particular and education in general in a region, which appears to be first from the bottom in terms of all human development indexes.
As the fate of the remaining girls still in the custody of their abductors remains uncertain, and as their lucky colleagues who escaped continue to recount the horror they underwent, the citizenry is still perplexed that not enough concrete steps have been taken to fortify schools and make them safe for teaching and learning.
However, many Nigerians and friends of the country have continued to express hope that with the intervention of many countries in the West, whose leaders are partnering with Nigeria to flush out the insurgents, the end may be in sight for the dreaded Islamists.
In the wake of the abduction and the innumerable massacres in schools especially in Yobe, Bornu and Adamawa states, there have been strident calls for every effort to be made and in time, towards securing schools across the country.
Last week, the Federal Government demonstrated what looks like a strong desire to guarantee the safety of schools and protect pupils from the threats of terror groups and other reactionary forces.
This was through the release by President Goodluck Jonathan, the sum of $10m matching fund demanded by the international community last month, for a dedicated fund to safeguard schools in the country, particularly in the North East zone, where the threat of insurgency has forced many to stay away from schools.
The international community, in response to the Chibok abduction had announced a donation of $10m and demanded that Nigeria matches the amount to be dedicated to securing schools in the country.
The Fund, which was announced by former British Prime Minister, Mr. Gordon Brown, would be used by a committee comprising some corporate Nigerians, to provide security in and around schools in the country.
While speaking during a visit by the German Minister of Development, Mr. Gerd Mueller, in Abuja, Coordinating Minister of the economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said the approval for the release of the fund was given on Wednesday by Jonathan, adding that with the approval, the $10m would be transferred into a special trust fund account for the implementation of the plan.
A statement released as part of activities to mark this year’s celebration, Brown who is currently the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education urged the world to remember the kidnapped schoolgirls.
“Young people throughout the world have dedicated today, Day of the African Child, not only to education, but in solidarity with the 287 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram, in Nigeria.
Thousands of people have come together united with one cause – safe schools for every girl and boy. While the global community has failed to deliver safe schooling, young people are demanding safe, quality schools for all children everywhere,” said the former English premier.
The UN envoy said that young people stood in solidarity with the northern Nigerian girls of Chibok and all those around the world who faced such struggles, adding that the continuous abduction of the girls by the outlaws was capable of jeopardising their future if urgent step were not taken by security experts to rescue them.
“I use this opportunity to call on world leaders to remember the kidnapped schoolgirls of Chibok in Nigeria and urgently find lasting solution to rescue them. I stand in solidarity with the northern Nigerian girls of Chibok and all those around the world who face these struggles.
In the view of the United Nations International Children Education Fund (UNICEF), Boko Haram has worsened North East’s backwardness in education and the region, which has always remained educationally backward, may be further drawn back by the unmitigated siege.
According to Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, Dr. Danjuma Almustafa, who stood in for the Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Bauchi, Dr. Abdulai Kaikai, one of three primary age children was out of school, and roughly one of four junior secondary age children was out of school as well.
He further decried that nearly 6.3 million, or 60 per cent, of the 10.5 million Nigerian children out of school children live in the northern part of the country.
“Even when enrolled, hundreds of children, especially girls, are not showing up for class. Although girls’ primary school attendance has generally been improving, this has not been the case for girls from the poorest households.”
Issues bordering on security of schools also resonated at a three-day International Conference on Peace and Development in Nigeria, which was at the instance of the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Adamawa State.
At the confab, participants were unanimous in calling on the Federal Government to make schools safe, secure and gender friendly, and education free from primary to secondary school.
President of AUN Dr. Margee Ensign expressed fears that as host of the highest number of out-of-school children in the whole world, peace would continue to elude the nation because its future leaders were not educated and are turned into instruments of violence by desperate politicians.
“Millions of Nigerian children are out of school, some of them are due to poverty, while others are due to the harsh academic curriculum that does not favour their background,” she said.
Ensign who advocated for tight security at boarding schools in the North East due to the insurgents activities, noted that the recent abduction of schoolgirls has negative implications on girl-child education.
She maintained that due to fear, parents and guardians would no longer be willing to send their daughters to school again, even as she lamented that the country’s educational backwardness has seen over 56 million Nigerian adults being incapable of reading or writing.”
While speaking at the conference, Hajia Asmau Joda, from the Centre for Women and Adolescent Girls Empowerment, Yola, alleged that the Federal Government was not showing enough interest the abduction saga, stressing that government’s action has killed the girl-child education agenda.
“Nobody can send his or her child to school in a country where the security of schoolgirls is not guaranteed because a situation where you send your child to school and you are not sure of her return, it is better to have an uneducated child alive than a dead child in school.” she said.
Joda further accused the government of paying scant attention to the education sector, but focusing more on politics, which she says has no development value to the country.
She said that poor budgetary provisions for education from federal to state levels were enough to confirm that Nigerian leaders lacked plans to develop the sector.
SOURCE:GUARDIAN NEWS WEBSITE
As if playing host to a record 10.5 million out-of-school children (the highest in the world) was not enough reason to make Nigerian policy makers and political leaders get ingenious and explore ways of ameliorating the situation, mounting safety concerns in public schools across the country, especially in the North East, have succeeded in making worse, a bad scenario.
In this direction, the Chibok schoolgirls abduction, which happened over two months ago, like a nightmare, which it is, has refused to go away even as the Federal Government appears to be at its wit’s end regarding retrieving the bewildered students.
It was in this grim scenario that Nigeria joined the rest of the continent to celebrate on Monday, the Day of the African Child.
June 16 every year is celebrated as the Day of the African Child. It was set aside by the defunct Organisation of African Unity (OAU) now African Union (AU).
The celebration, which has been in place on the continent since 1991, is in honour of South African students, who participated in the 1976 Soweto uprising under the then apartheid regime in South Africa in the course of which several of them were killed.
The students were protesting the poor quality of education and demanding their right to be taught in their own language before they were brutally hacked down by the South African police. Expectedly, that brutal exercise gave birth to immense international outrage.
With “Right To Participate: Let Children Be Seen And Heard,” being the theme of this year’s celebration, the ceremony generated increased awareness about the need to promote emotional and mental health of African children.
The April 15, 2014 abduction of more than 200 girls from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Bornu State by Boko Haram insurgents, in a way casts a pall on the future of girl-child education in particular and education in general in a region, which appears to be first from the bottom in terms of all human development indexes.
As the fate of the remaining girls still in the custody of their abductors remains uncertain, and as their lucky colleagues who escaped continue to recount the horror they underwent, the citizenry is still perplexed that not enough concrete steps have been taken to fortify schools and make them safe for teaching and learning.
However, many Nigerians and friends of the country have continued to express hope that with the intervention of many countries in the West, whose leaders are partnering with Nigeria to flush out the insurgents, the end may be in sight for the dreaded Islamists.
In the wake of the abduction and the innumerable massacres in schools especially in Yobe, Bornu and Adamawa states, there have been strident calls for every effort to be made and in time, towards securing schools across the country.
Last week, the Federal Government demonstrated what looks like a strong desire to guarantee the safety of schools and protect pupils from the threats of terror groups and other reactionary forces.
This was through the release by President Goodluck Jonathan, the sum of $10m matching fund demanded by the international community last month, for a dedicated fund to safeguard schools in the country, particularly in the North East zone, where the threat of insurgency has forced many to stay away from schools.
The international community, in response to the Chibok abduction had announced a donation of $10m and demanded that Nigeria matches the amount to be dedicated to securing schools in the country.
The Fund, which was announced by former British Prime Minister, Mr. Gordon Brown, would be used by a committee comprising some corporate Nigerians, to provide security in and around schools in the country.
While speaking during a visit by the German Minister of Development, Mr. Gerd Mueller, in Abuja, Coordinating Minister of the economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said the approval for the release of the fund was given on Wednesday by Jonathan, adding that with the approval, the $10m would be transferred into a special trust fund account for the implementation of the plan.
A statement released as part of activities to mark this year’s celebration, Brown who is currently the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education urged the world to remember the kidnapped schoolgirls.
“Young people throughout the world have dedicated today, Day of the African Child, not only to education, but in solidarity with the 287 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram, in Nigeria.
Thousands of people have come together united with one cause – safe schools for every girl and boy. While the global community has failed to deliver safe schooling, young people are demanding safe, quality schools for all children everywhere,” said the former English premier.
The UN envoy said that young people stood in solidarity with the northern Nigerian girls of Chibok and all those around the world who faced such struggles, adding that the continuous abduction of the girls by the outlaws was capable of jeopardising their future if urgent step were not taken by security experts to rescue them.
“I use this opportunity to call on world leaders to remember the kidnapped schoolgirls of Chibok in Nigeria and urgently find lasting solution to rescue them. I stand in solidarity with the northern Nigerian girls of Chibok and all those around the world who face these struggles.
In the view of the United Nations International Children Education Fund (UNICEF), Boko Haram has worsened North East’s backwardness in education and the region, which has always remained educationally backward, may be further drawn back by the unmitigated siege.
According to Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, Dr. Danjuma Almustafa, who stood in for the Chief of Field Office, UNICEF Bauchi, Dr. Abdulai Kaikai, one of three primary age children was out of school, and roughly one of four junior secondary age children was out of school as well.
He further decried that nearly 6.3 million, or 60 per cent, of the 10.5 million Nigerian children out of school children live in the northern part of the country.
“Even when enrolled, hundreds of children, especially girls, are not showing up for class. Although girls’ primary school attendance has generally been improving, this has not been the case for girls from the poorest households.”
Issues bordering on security of schools also resonated at a three-day International Conference on Peace and Development in Nigeria, which was at the instance of the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Adamawa State.
At the confab, participants were unanimous in calling on the Federal Government to make schools safe, secure and gender friendly, and education free from primary to secondary school.
President of AUN Dr. Margee Ensign expressed fears that as host of the highest number of out-of-school children in the whole world, peace would continue to elude the nation because its future leaders were not educated and are turned into instruments of violence by desperate politicians.
“Millions of Nigerian children are out of school, some of them are due to poverty, while others are due to the harsh academic curriculum that does not favour their background,” she said.
Ensign who advocated for tight security at boarding schools in the North East due to the insurgents activities, noted that the recent abduction of schoolgirls has negative implications on girl-child education.
She maintained that due to fear, parents and guardians would no longer be willing to send their daughters to school again, even as she lamented that the country’s educational backwardness has seen over 56 million Nigerian adults being incapable of reading or writing.”
While speaking at the conference, Hajia Asmau Joda, from the Centre for Women and Adolescent Girls Empowerment, Yola, alleged that the Federal Government was not showing enough interest the abduction saga, stressing that government’s action has killed the girl-child education agenda.
“Nobody can send his or her child to school in a country where the security of schoolgirls is not guaranteed because a situation where you send your child to school and you are not sure of her return, it is better to have an uneducated child alive than a dead child in school.” she said.
Joda further accused the government of paying scant attention to the education sector, but focusing more on politics, which she says has no development value to the country.
She said that poor budgetary provisions for education from federal to state levels were enough to confirm that Nigerian leaders lacked plans to develop the sector.
SOURCE:GUARDIAN NEWS WEBSITE
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