Education
THE Federal Government has called for collaborative efforts to provide secured environment for leavers and teachers in the face of threatening challenges.
The Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu made the call in Abuja on Thursday at the 66th National Council on Education (NCE) meeting.
The theme of the 2022 NCE is ‘Strengthening of Security and Safety in Nigerian Schools for the Achievement of Education 2030 Agenda’.
Adamu said that it was the responsibility of governments to uphold the right to education for all by ensuring that all barriers were removed.
” The safety and security of all our children must remain paramount, therefore all hands must be on deck to strengthen the security system of our educational institutions.
” Security is a collaborative effort and should not be left in the hands of the law enforcement agents alone.
” As such, all stakeholders in education sector should interface and be involved, through the NCE in order to address the menace of insecurity in our country, which remains one of our biggest challenges.
” The goals of Nigerian education are centred around building a free and democratic society, a just and egalitarian society, a united, strong and self reliant nation and a great and dynamic economy,” he said.
The minister said this administration had carried out effective sensitisation on the implementation of the Safe School Declaration (SSD) Initiative and a secured $20 million for accelerated emergency funding for the North East zone from Global Partnership for Education.
He added that it had also conducted vulnerability survey on schools in order to devise robust security strategies, constructed perimeter walls around schools, installed CCTV/ alarm systems in schools, and made others.
He said that while the federal government and some states and the FCT had done their best to arrest the situation, several other states are lagging behind.
He, therefore, called on all states to rise up to their responsibilities, and provide a safe and secure learning environment for both students and teachers.
Also, the Minister of State for Education, Mr Goodluck Opiah said the security challenges was responsible for the increasing percentage of school drop outs.
According to him, also worrisome is the ranking of Nigeria among other countries with high population of Out-of School Children (OoSC) in spite of government efforts and interventions by other stakeholders, the problem still persists owing to the growing spate of insecurity.
” It is necessary that all stakeholders collaborate and cooperate with the government to address the state of insecurity in Nigeria.
” There is also the need to proffer practical solutions to the menace of insecurity that has bedeviled our institutions.
” Therefore, both kinetic and non- kinetic means should be employed to salvage our educational system. These strategies should be emphasised in both national and state education sector strategic plan,” he said.
Also, the UNICEF Chief of Education Officer, Saadhna Panday-Soobrayan said attacks on schools and violence in and around schools was having devastating short and long-term consequences on the wellbeing of children and communities.
According to her, UNICEF strongly believes that quality education, especially for the girl child, is the single most effective investment a country can make to ensure safety and security and the economic wellbeing of the country.
” Nigeria has a strong policy landscape in support of safe schools. We know what to do to keep our children safe in schools.
” What is now needed is a strong focus on how to deliver coordinated implementation of the minimum standards on safe school at scale and with urgency.
” In this regard, UNICEF is currently supporting the Federal Ministry of Education to develop a national costed implementation plan. This is being replicated for 11 states with the highest risk profiles,” She said.
Panday-Soobrayan added that school safety cannot be dealt with in isolation from the other challenges facing Nigeria’s education system.
She explained that children were out of school because they feel unsafe, and when children failed to go to school and learn, this heightens their participation in risk behaviour including in conflict and violence.
” Getting children into school and keeping them there is therefore critical to end the security challenges in the country. The good news is that we know how to do this well.
” The GEPIII projects in the Northwest showed that over a million girls could be brought into primary school through cash transfers, community enrolment campaigns, fixing the basic infrastructure in schools and improving the quality of teaching and learning.
” We now must scale this in earnest to dramatically reduce the number of out-of-school children,” she added.
She, therefore, said that attention must now be on building a credible model to ensure that adolescent girls transition to junior secondary school and stay there if we are to stem the significant population growth in Nigeria.
She added that solving the safety challenge, the out of school problem and learning crisis rests on access to timely and high-quality data and it rests on an adequately funded education system. (NAN)
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Tags: Goodluck Opiah Malam Adamu Adamu Saadhna Panday-Soobrayan
