2, 000 Nigerian youths petition governors over quality education

Doosuur Iwambe, Abuja

As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to celebrate the Day of the African Child,2, 000 youth across 10 states, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have presented petitions to their governors, parliamentarians and policy makers tasking them to be committed to quality education for children, especially girls.

The action, supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is coming as the world celebrates the Day of the African Child, commemorating the day in 1976 when hundreds of students were shot by policemen in Soweto, South Africa during the apartheid era while demonstrating for their right to quality education.

Commending the Nigerian youth for taking up the challenge, UNICEF representative in Nigeria, Peter Hawkins, said that the action by the youth as displayed across several states on Sunday, is a wake-up call for leaders to act on their commitments to provide quality education for all children in all situations.

“The Nigerian campaign for access to quality education will hold the newly-elected government officials at all levels accountable for their campaign promises.

“This is to provide equitable access to free, safe and quality education for every child, especially the girl-child in Nigeria,” he stated.

Hawkins, who lamented that some states in the country have an average enrolment rate of 57 per cent, added that schools should be a safe place for children.

He said that “the engagement seeks to secure commitments from national and state governments to prioritize children’s rights to education in their governance agenda, including through budgeting in their states and at the national level.

“This engagement creates an opportunity for Nigerian youth to advocate to policy and decision makers and urge them to commit resources to education, without which the substantial number of out-of-school children in Nigeria will not be reduced.”

The UNICEF official added that the targeted investment is to ensure an uninterrupted 12 years of schooling for girls.

“In addition, it hopes to extract a commitment for a 10 per cent increase in budgetary allocation and release of funds for education, with 50 per cent of the total budget to basic education, recruitment, deployment and provision of incentives for 1, 000 female teachers per year and recruitment and deployment of 1,000 qualified teachers per year, especially to rural areas where they are most needed.

“The convention is the most widely-ratified human rights treaty in history and stipulates that every child has the right to education.

It has helped to transform children’s lives; inspiring legislative changes to protect children and enabling them to participate actively in their societies,” he said.

The global theme for this year’s Day of the African Child is child rights in all situations, including during humanitarian crises.