May 27: Children Set Agenda For Tinubu Ahead Of Inauguration
As Nigeria celebrates Children’s Day, access to free education and security of school environments topped requests from children to the incoming government of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Kashim Shettima, which would be inaugurated on May 29.
Other priority areas for the children include scholarships, provision of learning aids and recruitment of more teachers.
The children also prayed not to experience incessant strikes by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and other related associations when they gain admission into higher institutions.
The theme for this year’s celebration is More Money for Primary Education.
President Muhammadu Buhari proposed N1.79trillion for the education sector, representing about 8.8 per cent of the 2023 budget.
Despite being the highest he has made to the sector since he assumed office in 2015, it is still less than half of the percentage recommended by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) for expenditure on the sector.
Daily Trust Saturday reports that primary education is officially free and compulsory in Nigeria, but at least 18 million of the country’s children aged between 5 and 14 years are not in school.
In 2022, the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) said that since December 2020, no fewer than 1,436 school children had been abducted in Nigeria, mainly in North Central and North West,
The UNICEF also revealed that at least 16 school children lost their lives to different non-state armed attacks in the federation while 17 teachers were kidnapped from schools.
UNICEF representative in Nigeria, Peter Hawkins, had said, “Unsafe schools, occasioned by attacks on schools and abduction of students, are reprehensible, a brutal violation of the rights of the victims to education, and totally unacceptable. Their occurrences cut short the futures and dreams of the affected students.
“Attacks on learning institutions render the learning environment insecure and discourage parents and caregivers from sending their wards to schools, while the learners themselves become fearful of the legitimate pursuit of learning,” Hawkins said.
He noted that the invisible harm school attacks “inflict on the victims’ mental health was incalculable and irredeemable. Girls have particularly been targeted, exacerbating the figures of out-of-school children in Nigeria, 60 per cent of whom are girls.
“It is a trajectory which must be halted, and every hand in Nigeria must be on deck to ensure that learning in Nigeria is not a dangerous enterprise for any child, particularly for girls.”
Daily Trust Saturday reports that since the time UNICEF issued the statement, more attacks had been carried out in towns and villages, forcing many children and their parents to flee.
Many are still in captivity in many parts of the country. DailyTrust
