ADELEKE ADESANYA AND OLAWUYI WONDER
A Non-Governmental Organisation, His Marvellous Grace Support Foundation, has implored the Federal Government to ensure that the fight against coronavirus pandemic should not be a barrier to children’s education in Nigeria.
In a statement to mark the 2021 International Day of Education, founder of the child rights group, Dr. Oluwadamisi Tayo-Ladega, said the President Muhammadu Buhari led-government should devise a means to ensure that the standard of the education given to children does not diminish during ongoing fight against the pandemic.
She said, “We understand that the government, like its counterparts in other parts of the world, is putting up a good fight against the coronavirus. But while this is going on, our education system in Nigeria must not drop in terms of standard, especially when it comes to the children.
“We cannot afford to the see the education of these kids being affected by the COVID-19 fight and for this, we are pleading with the government to devise everything possible to ensure that the children’s education goes on fine just like when there was no coronavirus in the country”.
Tayo-Ladega, who is a United Kingdom based public health expert, also charged parents across the country to do more to ensure good education for their children and wards, especially during the fight against the pandemic.
“The parents must also make sure they are not found wanting in this area. Education they say starts from home, buy this, parents must do their parts to put these children on the right tracks of attaining good education. By this society will be a safe haven for everyone in future,” she said.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Children’s Fund, has implored government of every country to do more in the area of education for children.
According to UNICEF, the right to education is enshrined in article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The declaration calls for free and compulsory elementary education.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989, goes further to stipulate that countries shall make higher education accessible to all.
When it adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015, the international community recognised that education is essential for the success of all 17 of its goals.
Sustainable Development Goal 4, in particular, aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” by 2030.
Education offers children a ladder out of poverty and a path to a promising future.
But about 265 million children and adolescents around the world do not have the opportunity to enter or complete school.
More than a fifth of them are of primary school age.
They are thwarted by poverty, discrimination, armed conflict, emergencies and the effects of climate change.
Migration and forcible displacement also affect the achievement of the education goals, as presented in the 2019 Global Education Monitoring report.