Media Executives have agreed to work
with UNICEF and other relevant agencies to ensure that every
child in Nigeria is in school.
This was
resolved at the end of two-day
media dialogue on child education with the theme: “Leave No Child Behind” held
in Kano from Monday to Tuesday.
The dialogue, organized by the Child
Rights Information Bureau (CRIB) of the Federal Ministry of Information &
Culture in collaboration with UNICEF, is facilitated by its Communication
Specialist, Geoffrey Njoku.
The workshop was well attended by
Editors, Columnist and Feature writers representing a diverse range of media
outlets from across Nigeria, Government officials and UNICEF specialists in
Communications and Education.
The
objective of the dialogue is to present the Nigerian Media with facts and data
in inequitable educational opportunities between able persons and persons with
disabilities, indigenous people and non-indigenes, advantaged children and
disadvantaged children and other who are at risk of exclusion from education.
Participants
embarked on a field trip to Army Children Special Primary School, Janguza
Barracks, Tofa LGA, of Kano State. The headmistress of the school, Hajia Ahmed
said the school was established in 1980. From the participants’ observation,
the school lack chairs, ventilation and good toilet facilities.
The
headmistress said that the school has N-Power teachers who are training
internally most time. She however reiterated that they have to beg parents to
ensure they release their children to come to school despite the fact that it
is a tuition free school.
She further
said that parents are tasked by paying Fifty Naira as PTA level to enable them
do some maintenance in the school. She said that students are taught in English
and Hausa languages.
The school
has graduated about one hundred and eighty pupils so far. The classes in the
school comprises of pre-nursery to Primary 6. It was noted that more boys were
admitted than girls and most of the girls had to embark trade as a condition
for their parents to allow them come to school.
The same
was the case of another school; Tofa Model Primary School visited in Tofa Local
Government Area of Kano State
In her
paper presentation titled “Gaps in Education Access in Nigeria: A Situation
Analysis of What UNICEF Is Doing” UNICEF Education Specialist, Azuka Menkiti
reiterated that over 10.5million children aged 6 – 14 years are out of schools.
She said
that girls are made up majority of out of school children in Northern Nigeria.
She further said that education indicators in Northern Nigeria are different
from that of Southern Nigeria.
She went
further to say that the Southern Nigeria has 11% average children age between 6
to 14 years out of school while the Northern Nigeria has 31% average children age
between 6 to 14 years out of school.
The percentage
of Female attendance in the Northeast and Northwest was put at 44% and 47.4%
respectively; more than half of Primary School aged girls are out of school.
The reports
shows that gender constitute barrier in education while poverty is another
factor that constitute barrier to equity and equality.
One of the
way to bridge the gap between boys and girls in Northern Nigeria is the HE4SHE initiative
according to the UNICEF Education Specialist.
She reiterated
that poor implementation of education policy and Law; poor learning outcomes
such as absent of teachers, overcrowded classroom, poor learning environment,
low budgetary allocations, release and utilization.
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