8 Years After Chibok Girls' Abduction, UNICEF Calls For Safety of Learners to Encourage Girl-child Education
- The Nigerian government has been encouraged to ensure that school environments are secure and safe for learning activities
- This call was made by UNICEF in commemoration of the eighth year anniversary of the abduction of Chibok schoolgirls
- According to UNICEF, since December 2020, 1,436 school children and 17 teachers have been abducted from schools
- The international agency also said that a total of 16 school children have lost their lives in different such attacks
On April 14, 2014, a total of 276 girls - all below the age of 18 years - were abducted by some Boko Haram terrorists from the Government Girls Secondary School Chibok
Eight years after the abduction which caused public outrage with the international community calling for intensified efforts by the government of Nigeria to ensure the release of the girls, over 100 of them are still missing. Others have either been rescued or have escaped from the terrorists' captivity.
Source: UGC
Calling for improved safety of learners in schools, especially for girls, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), safe schools and a secured learning environment is key to increasing girls' enrollment, retention and completion of education.
A statement released by Samuel Kaalu, UNICEF's communication specialist, Kano on Thursday, April 14, said since the first attack by a terrorist group in GGSS Chibok, school children have become soft targets with many incidents of attacks leading to their deaths.
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The statement said that the attack on schools by armed groups has become recurrent in the last two years, especially in the northwest and north-central regions of Nigeria.
It said that since December 2020, 1,436 school children and 17 teachers have been abducted from schools, and 16 school children lost their lives in different such attacks.
UNICEF representative in Nigeria, Peter Hawkins warned that unsafe schools, occasioned by attacks and subsequent abduction of students, are reprehensible, a brutal violation of the rights of the victims to education, and totally unacceptable.
Hawkins also noted that these occurrences cut short the future and dreams of the affected students.
His words:
“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."
According to him, the invisible harm school attacks inflict on the victims’ mental health is incalculable and irredeemable.
In addition, Hawkins said that with girls being particularly targetted, 60 per cent of the figures for out-of-school children in Nigeria are girls.
Calling for a halt to such incessant attacks on schools, the UNICEF representative said that all hands must be on deck to ensure that learning in Nigeria is not a dangerous enterprise for any child, particularly for girls.
Continuing the statement decried the closure of 11, 536 schools since December 2020 due to abductions and security issues.
UNICEF said that these school closures have impacted the education of approximately 1.3 million children in the 2020/21 academic year thereby creating a learning interruption that contributes to the gaps in children’s knowledge and skills.
The statement also said that these gaps may lead to the loss of approximately 3.4 billion United States dollars in the lifetime earnings of these children.
The international organisation said it is collaborating with the Nigerian government through funding from donors to protect children's right to education in a safe and inclusive learning environment.
Education experts reveal why Nigeria is experiencing low learning outcomes
Experts across the country had called for strategic approaches to improving learning outcomes in school children.
The experts warned that 70 per cent of the children who are currently in school are not even learning.
According to them, there is also a need for all stakeholders in education to work towards ensuring teachers' development bearing in mind, the importance of training and retraining school instructors.
Teachers who can't write their names end up spreading ignorance to school children, Adams Oshiomhole warns
Nigerians across the country have been urged to prevail on their governors to prioritise education in their states.
This advice was given to Nigerians by a former governor of Edo state, Adams Oshiomhole during an event in Abuja on Wednesday, March 30.
According to the former governor, there is a need to train, educate and skill up Nigerian youths for possible development.
Source: Legit.ng
