New Telegraph

Safe School Declaration: Time to take action

Background check

It is a fact that cannot be disputed. It is absolutely impossible to convince a right-thinking Nigerian that foundational education is still healthy in Nigeria. Education experts believe that education just like a building cannot do without a solid foundation. They say that when a wrong foundation is laid for a person’s education history, it often remains obvious. For this, they are advocating that schools must at least remain safe for proper education to take place noting that an unsafe environment cannot offer any safe, healthy, quality or qualitative education. Consequent upon that, the South-East Zone of the Civil Society Action Coalition on Education For All (CSACEFA) is currently pushing for the domestication of the Safe Schools Declaration (SSD), an inter-governmental political agreement dedicated to protecting education from armed conflict among United Nations (UN) Member States. “Government can’t pay the teachers that are the foundation builders and that is why the entire system is collapsing.

They’re not training and retraining teachers. Many teachers can’t even operate computers. This is what every responsible government should prioritise, if they are truly committed to producing qualitative young graduates and custodians of our future. ”

Education is comatose in the South-East and if nothing is done, it’ll collapse completely. When you do pay attention to teachers welfare and improvement, and do not give children fundamental teachings, what do you expect? Look at the illiterate graduates we’re churning every year from our institutions of higher learning. “That’s as a result of failed foundation. Nobody should be called a graduate if he or she is not found worthy in character and learning. But today, you see people who are morally illiterates, socially illiterates with zero etiquettes, but because he or she has one certificate to back up for years spent in the University such a person is regarded as a graduate.” Egbuna said that education ought to refine a human being and restore the dignity of man to the fullest. She added that early foundation is the key to better education just as no construction engineer will erect a skyscraper without a solid foundation, and no society will be stable without a solid foundational education. “Any society that neglects foundational education like primary and secondary school education but hopes to develop technologically, morally, economically and have good security is building castles in the air. It’s just a pipe dream. “We have traced where we started getting it wrong. Our education system is faulty and that is the number one thing we must correct.

We need to make our foundational schools manufacturing centres for better human beings. “People in the political positions today don’t know what the people below are facing. The current thing we hear from children today is that ‘school is a scam’. They’re saying so because they see those who don’t have certificates flourishing and controlling society,
leaving better than those who are educated.”

Wrong notions about education

“The government has given our children the wrong impression that makes them think that ‘school is a scam’. Why will children not say that school is a scam when a teacher who teaches them always appears hungry and angry because of lack of regular salary? “Why won’t they call school a scam when pensioners who went to school got educated and served their fatherland are dying at home while those who didn’t go to school are doing better? “For over 15 months no leave allowance for teachers and they’re being owed for several months here in Abia State. How do you want those around them to see things concerning school? They have children. Their children are seeing all these things and you still want them to believe in our education system? “How can they not say school is a scam when doctors who spent many years studying to save lives are owed? How do you convince them that school is not a scam when the government watched University lecturers go on strike for nearly one full academic session and such outrageous amount of money is wasted purchasing political parties’ nomination forms? “Our children are seeing all these! They see that our society is gradually making the educated the downtrodden while the uneducated are becoming the focus because of their bank accounts. “If this continues, we’ll get to a point where nobody will be seen in schools anymore. They’ll make the money they’re looking for but we’ll have a society of reckless, illiterate and morally deficient people who only know about their pockets. How can we compete tomorrow with this kind of children who do not consider education as valuable?”, she queried.

Encroachment of schools

Comrade Okoye Chuka Peter, Executive Director, Centre for Human Rights Advocacy and Wholesome Society (CEHRAWS) lamented the encroachment into school facilities in Abia State and describes such as a serious attack on education. New Telegraph reports that many residents are left confused about what is currently happening in many government primary and secondary schools in the state, as many now have strange buildings being erected within them, markets taking over some. “It’s a serious attack on education. Most of us from Abia here are highly disappointed with the government in power and the immediate past government because they started this attack on education. “This is part of the reason we’re calling for safety for schools. You see, we cannot just watch education reduced to a thing of ridicule and expect to have a good society. I will givesome illustrations; whenMrPeterObi was the Governor of Anambra State, he gave back some schools to the missionaries but Government never stopped there. “Backthen, Anambraequippedtheschools, facilitatedthingsandgavethemgrantstoequip the schools. Come down to Imo State, Rochas Okorocha restored the image of government schools. He adhered to the free education scheme from basics to class six in secondary. He gave them all manner of educational materials like school bags, shoes and other required materials. “But in Abia State, what are we seeing? Schools are allegedly being sold out and given backtoindividualsorchurcheswithoutgovernment supervision. Some others have market encroachment. Tell me what kind of students such schools will produce. “Look at Azikiwe Road Primary School, a school that used to be a great primary school then, it’s no more. They’re building what looks like a business centre there. “Even if the space was given to the government by an individual to build the school, the governmentshouldhavetriedtomaintainthat school. What’s the allocation given to them for? “Nobody can explain where Azikiwe Road Primary School is now located. I heard it has been merged with another nearby primary school. Just imagine someone who travelled and had need to look for his or her First School Leaving Certificate at Azikiwe Road Primary School, how will the person go about it? “So this is a serious attack on education and abuse of the rights of both the present and past students of that school. Look at the Ndoki Road Primary School. There’s a military base there. Despite the security issues we had, that is an attack on education. “This issue can frighten the pupils andI don’t think that schools exist today because the markethasencroachedallitsflanks. There’salsoanother school at Ogbor-Hill that when you look at it you’ll see that parts of the school has been soldoutorprobablyreturnedtoanindividual.”

Way forward

He pleaded with the government to allow Civil Society Organizations to enter into the affairs of schools to save them from complete destruction.

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