President Muhammadu Buhari has
said handling the nation’s ongoing security challenges has been so tough on his
administration.
He, however, expressed optimism
that with measures being put in place by his administration, the general
insecurity would soon be a thing of the past.
The president, speaking Tuesday, in
Abuja, through his Chief of Staff, Ibrahim Gambari, at the 4th International
Conference on Safe Schools Declaration, also regretted that the security
situation in the country has had a great toll on school enrollment, particularly
in basic school level.
According to the president, over 12 million children, particularly girls, were afraid of accessible quality education because of the attacks schools have witnessed so far in the country, saying the development had left them traumatized.
Speaking further at the event
with the theme: ‘Ensuring Safe Education for All: From Commitment to Practice, co-hosted
by Nigeria, governments of Argentina, Norway, Spain, AU Commission and the
Global Coalition to protect Education from attack, the president said
government was determined emplace strong security measures in institutions of
learning.
He regretted that kidnappings of
pupils and students, coupled with the overall insecurity in schools have
worsened many factors that were hitherto contributing to out-of-school children
in the country.
But Buhari said to record
adequate achievements in the education sector, the system would require a total
overhaul in provision of a safe and secured environment for learners and
teachers.
He said availability of
professional teachers, strong political will on the part of government to
invest in education, and provision for adequate funding mechanism were all
priorities to realise better education system.
He said at will, bandits, kidnappers and terrorists
invade education facilities in Nigeria and in some African countries to abduct
the learners in large numbers.
According to the President, “A
report released by S.B Morgen revealed that a total number of 1,462 learners
and education personnel were abducted between 1st December 2019 and September
2021, in school-related abductions as well as home and community- related
abductions of Learners and teachers”
“The highest number of abduction of 327
learners was also recorded in a single kidnap in Zamfara State, Northwest
Nigeria while Kaduna has experienced the greatest number of incidences of
attack on education,” he said.
He said,”Out of 19 educational
institutions attacked, 12 representing 63%, were secondary schools while five
which represented 26% were within the tertiary educational system”
“Currently, there are more than 12 million
children traumatized and afraid of going to school especially the girl child as
reflected in S.B Morgen report,” he said.
He listed places already invaded
as Chibok, Dapchi, Buni Yadi, Afaka, kagora, and Jangebe in Borno, Yobe,
Kaduna, Niger and Zamfara states respectively.
Hear him “In recent times, all
over the world, there has been a myriad of persistent attacks on education and
Nigeria is also having its own fair share of these attacks.
“It is no longer news that at
will, bandits, kidnappers and terrorists invade our educational facilities to
abduct the learners in large numbers. Some places that have been hit by this
menace include Chibok, Dapchi, Buni Yadi, Afaka, Kagora, and Jangebe in Borno,
Yobe, Kaduna, Niger and Zamfara states respectively.It is disheartening to note
that even when the abducted students are released the trauma of the incidents
remain long in their minds hence the plan to have teachers trained on
psycho-social support.”
Also speaking, Minister of
Education, Adamu Adamu, explained that the objective of the conference was to
build on experiences from the previous ones and highlights progress made by
respective countries on the implementation of the Declaration’s commitments,
share best practices and deliberate on challenges to improve the relevant approaches
that would enhance the protection of learners, education personnel and
educational institutions.
On his part, the UNICEF Country
Director, Peter Hawkins, said Nigeria has displayed commitment it has towards
ensuring that children’s education is of paramount importance for Nigeria and
to the international community
“SSD is an important tool to
ensure that children attend school freely and safely wherever they are ,it’s an
international phenomenon where schools are used by military ,impacts of the
insurgents on children have been high a lot has been done to ensure that the
insecurity problem is alleviated and to ensure that education do continue,” he
said.
“The Street Child Country Representative,
Marcheillo Viola, said community based implementation of the frameworks on Safe
School Declaration is key to achieving the set goals of the document”
“To mainstream the guidelines into practice,
the first will be awareness and identify the risk and help the children to know
the sign of where the risks are, it is important to have government prosecute
perpetrators, the document is systemic,” he said.
Also speaking, Head of Finland
Mission in Nigeria, Yohanna Tedevitui, said as a signatory to the SSD, attacks
on education in Finland have reduced in the last ten years, she expressed
optimism that the document will help Nigeria and her partners to address the
too many abductions of school children.
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com