CSACEFA, CODE mark Global Action Week for Education with Other Education Activists

Dotun Roy

Education Activists across the world have set aside Global Action Week on Education for all campaign to restrategise toward achieving EFA goals as we cross over to the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for the next 15 years which lapses by 2030. It is to this end that Civil Society Action Coalition on Education For All (CSACEFA), CODE and other major stakeholders in the education sector in Nigeria have come together to deliberate on the way forward in achieving sustainable education for all society in a panel discussions held today in Abuja.

Accroding to Chioma Osuji, Policy Advisor, CSACEFA, who is the organiser of tbe event said This year Global Action Week theme is “Vote For Education”, it is imperative for all education activists and major stakeholders in the education sector in Nigeria to restrategize and work together, particularly as Nigeria will be transitioning into new adminstration, she said. She further added that currently Nigeria still has high number of untrained teachers and 7million children did not complete primary school. And what this means is that Nigeria has suffered set backs in meeting with EFA goals and MDGs as regards to education. Therefore choosing vote for education theme is creating the avenue to ask the government to take responsibility for their inability to met EFA goals. We are equally using this GAW platform to ask the incoming government of General Buhari to make education a priority for all Nigerian children. Universal basic education for all and adult literacy should be seen as part of developmental process in the next administration, she affirmed.

Goodwill message read by the representive of the Executive secretary, UBEC stressed the need for effective monitoring of the implementation UBE programme as paramount in order to achieve sustainable transparency and accountability structure for the implementation of EFA goals. Renovation of classrooms, rehabilitation of borehole, distributions of school uniform, sandals, learning materials as well as buidling schools toilets are all part of the UBEC scheme, although UBEC cannot possibly do everything we need support and cooperation of other major stakeholders in Educator sectors” she alluded.

Miss Ojonwa Deborah, A World At School Ambassador and Policy Advisor, CODE, during her presentation at the event stressed the need to discard and fight against harmful cultural practice such as early child marriage which poses major challenge to girl child education in Nigeria. She posited that we should all rally round and make certain that all the out-of- schools children from conflict-affected zones in Nigeria are back in school.

Miss Ojonwa making presentation at the event

Bolaji Abdulahi, the APC respresentative, two-time minister in Kwara state as well as former Kwara state commisioner for Education who graced the event, spoke extensively on how education is essential to the development of every child. The ultimate goal of Education is better and improved human existence. For instance, the problem of mass failure in WAEC is not secondary education problem it is the primary education problem that country must tackle is quick as possible. He added that training and retraining of teachers is as important as training the children. “Teachers must have adequate training and they must be re-trained to improved their performance.