Prioritisng Safety At School

Poised by the pains and
grief  of the abduction of over 200 school girls in a government secondary school in Chibok, Bornu State, Nigeria, by the Boko Haram sect in April this year, the United Nations Special  Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, nursed the idea of a safe school  initiative, as a panacea to the rising threat to girls education in the northern part of the country.
When  the initiative was eventually launched in May 2014, during the World’s Economic Summit 2014 in Abuja, Nigeria, Mr. Gordon Brown said. “The first step in  response to this crisis has been to show our support. The next phase is now to take practical measures  to make schools safer. We cannot stand by and  see schools shut down, girls cut off from their education and parents in fear  for their  daughters’ lives”.
Grace a dieu, six months after the launch of this all-important initiative, the first  batch of the  beneficiaries, numbering about  2,400 pupils was enrolled, during which the Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, expressed  the Federal Governments of Nigeria’s determination  to use the initiative to bring  back hope for parents and children  whose sense  of safety has been shattered  by the activities of terrorists. She also announced that 800 students have been selected from each  of the three states worst hit by the activities of the insurgents, to be given full scholarship at 32 federal  schools across the country. While we commend the effort of the Safe  School Initiative Steering Committee, I think that the velocity at which they are moving needs be accentuated a little, especially  given the fact that  the insecurity situations in the country  needs be  tackled with great  dispatch to fore-stall further loses.
The recent bombing of Government Technical school in the city of Potiskum, Yobe State North East of Nigeria, should make Nigerians and their leaders know that the safety of schools in Nigeria, especially those in the north-Eastern states is a concept that  must not be treated with levity.
Six months after the inauguration of the  safe school initiative  in Nigeria, one expects a vigorous measure by the authorities concerned at restoring hope and faith in schools in the north-east to make real its intention of rebuilding confidence  in parents over their daughters’ safety at school, by preventing terrorists from forcing children out of school.
Instead, what is witnessed is a scene that looks so much as a scholarship arrangement  still in unsafe environment.
It truly the education system that has the potential  to transform Nigeria must not be undermined, then the safe school initiative, which has what it takes to put Nigeria back on track and help more and more girls and boys go to school and learn, must be accorded the priority it deserves.
For me, yes scholarship could be part of the package  especially for the already devastated  and hopeless, yet,  it must not be  forgotten  that the greater  emphasis should dwell  on school and community  interventions, with special measures for the most-at-risk and vulnerable children.
We were told that the initiative  would build  community security groups to promote safe zones for education, consisting of teachers, parents, police, community leaders and young people themselves. This I consider key in ensuring safety at school and if such had been put in place, perhaps, the Potiskum School bombing would have been averted. What a loss!
The Head of Gender Parity and Skills Initiatives, World Economic Forum, Saadia Zahidi, may not have been in the spirit when he noted that,
“One of Africa’s greatest assets is its young people who will drive its future development. According to Mr. Zahidi, the safe school initiative can help Africa unlock its potentials and in this light could be seen as a crucial intervention.
For those who know the worth of education to humanity, no payment could be seen  too costly for its preservation. Perhaps, that could be why. This Day Newspaper publisher, Mr. Nduka Obaigbena, while describing the reaction  of the Nigeria business community  towards the abduction of over 200 school girls in Chibok, in April, which he described as a reflection of the threat to education to Nigeria, said, “the  greater danger is in the fear of going to  school. We could lose  a generation  of children  who are  afraid of  going to school,” he warned.
However, if anything has to be done at all, then such deserves to be done well. We cannot wait to make our citadels of learning safe when there will be obviously no souls to attend them. The time to save our education system, our children  and our future is now! A stitch in time saves nine.

Sylvia ThankGod –Amadi