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.

CSACEFA role

The South-East Zone of CSACEFA is also of the opinion that SSD has some peculiar domestic elements that need to be tackled which differ from continent to continent, country to country, region to region and even from state to state depending on the political settings. The Safe Schools Declaration outlines a set of commitments to strengthen the protection of education from attack and restrict the use of schools and universities for military purposes. In 2015, the governments of Norway and Argentina led a process among United Nations (UN) Member States to develop the Safe Schools Declaration seeking to ensure the continuity of safe education during armed conflict.

Declaration

The Declaration was opened for countries to endorse at the First International Conference on Safe Schools in Oslo, Norway, in May 2015. And in October 2021, the government of Nigeria hosted the Fourth International Conference on the Safe Schools Declaration in Abuja after the second and third were hosted by Argentina and Spain. By endorsing the Declaration, states also commit to restoring access to a safe education and to developing education systems that are conflict-sensitive and promote respect between social or ethnic groups. The South-East Zonal Coordinator and Abia State Coordinator of Civil Society Action Coalition on Education For All (CSACEFA), Mrs Eunice Egbuna said that facts on the ground have shown that many government public schools in the South East region are now empty and deserted due to parents and students feeling unsafe with what they see around the school environments. Egbuna who is a renowned educationist and a retired classroom teacher said that it is high time focus is turned towards quality and qualitative education, affordable education, inclusive education and welfare of the teachers to enable them to perform well in a safe and secure environment. “We thank God that Nigeria is among the first 37 countries that signed into the Safe School Declaration (SSD) and eventually at last the Federal Government has keyed in and there’s now a national policy on Safety Security and Violence Free Schools.

Policy framework

“They now have the policy and we’re now talking about domesticating in the states within the Eastern Zone so we can enjoy the benefits. Some bigger NGOs are being sponsored to give training concerning it which by God’s grace we at CSACEFA are part of. “Parents are afraid of leaving their children in the hands of teachers that are being owed who are hardly there to look after the children and even if they are there, the teachers aren’t comfortable because of their situation and all these are threats to education. “When we talk about safety, if students are sure that they wouldn’t have any of those problems listed or probably minimized, I think they’ll go back to school. So, Safe School Declaration is talking about the ways to manage schools to ensure that students are safe and feel safe. We’re preempting attacks and how to tackle it to ensure that students are safe,” she said. Egbuna called on the various state governments in the South- East to be proactive and come out fully to support and ensure that the SSD is domesticated in the zone considering how insecurity is growing daily and the current use of school infrastructure for military bases seen all over the zone.

Enough training

“We’ve received enough training on this and it needs to be impacted in our schools for safety purposes. “We’ll bring the teachings out. We want stakeholders in the education sector, ministries, local government and in the schools both private and the public to key in so we can give them what we have to enable them to secure their schools and give our children a better environment for proper education. “Jingles and adverts to make people register in school are not enough. How secure and safe is the school you want people to register their children into? “So many places called schools today aren’t schools at all.

There are too many dangers within such places. They need to be made to understand that a school ought to be one of the safest places a child can be today because it’s safety that brings relaxation and comportment for proper learning. “There are things government and the Civil Society need to ensure we have in schools. You can’t just have a building with teachers and call the place a school.”

Foundational Education in South-east While speaking on the current standard of foundational education (primary and secondary school) in the region, Egbuna said she is very much uncomfortable with the system as it is currently producing graduates that cannoteasure up to the academic, moral and other requirements needed to succeed in a society where the rule of law reigns. She further heaped the blame at the doorsteps of parents and government for constantly and deliberately reducing the standards that onece made the Igbo society the envy of all, to what is now the ‘highest bidder system’ where anything is acceptable. She said, “I’m not comfortable with the school system in the East. Nothing is working. From examinations to all other segment of the school system, we’re getting it wrong.

Parent’s role

“Parents are encouraging illiteracy in our region by pushing their children to jump classes just to make records that they graduated early from secondary school. “Nobody repeats classes anymore for not meeting up with academic demands. Promotion to a new class after every third term is now a right no longer by merit. “When a child is asked to repeat a class because he didn’t merit promotion, the same parents will pull that child from such a school and take him or her to a school where mediocrity is encouraged and that child will be promoted.

“Quality education is what will make us reclaim our position as top people in society. Look at the calibre of people we’ve produced from this part of Nigeria in the past. If we continue with this terrible system of education where people cheat their way to the top, do you think we’ll have people we can trust to take over this society? “Go out there, you’ll see our professionals nurtured from home here doing well and going high above their mates from other parts of the world.

“They were all given our strong foundation here before they went out there to get better university education outside or even within our best schools here to make them ready for the competition.” Egbuna said that if the governors in the East continue to keep mute and watch the educationa system washed away by the flood of corruption and mediocrity, a terrible foundation will take over and no reasonable youth will be raised to take the place of the celebrated people in the region today.

Teachers welfare

Egbuna also lambasted the government, especially those in charge in Abia State for their shabby treatment of teachers which she said is currently having a negative effect on the education system.

TO BE CONTINUED NEXT WEEK

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