Doubts greet Safe School Initiative

Experts express reservations about a new inititative by the Federal Government and business community to secure schools, FOLASHADE ADEBAYO writes

With a capital base of $20m, the Safe School Initiative, a collaborative effort between the Federal Government and the private sector, seeks to reverse the enrolment gap created by incessant attacks by the Boko Haram on schoolchildren and buildings in the North.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, Nigeria is home to 10.5million out-of-school pupils, the highest burden in the world. Unarguably, repeated attack by the Boko Haram have aggravated the high school dropout rate in the country.

Courtesy of the SSI, some 500 schools, mostly in the North, will benefit from the intervention to counter the ceaseless affronts on the right to education. The SSI funds, therefore, will go into building a coalition of communal security, which will involve parents, teachers, young people and community leaders.

During its inauguration in Abuja, a former British Prime Minister, Mr. Gordon Brown, who is spearheading the intervention, remarked that the initiative would bolster the diminishing confidence in public education.

He said, “There is a desperate need to assure Nigerians that schoolchildren are safe to go to school. The initiative wants parents and teachers to come up with what safety measures they need but the government too should be involved,’’

As laudable as the project appears to be, it, however, has come under criticism by some stakeholders, who question its reactionary approach. According to the critics, the SSI cannot be the magic the nation’s education sector has been waiting for. Indeed, some of them have even questioned the logic behind security of schools. The thinking here is that emphasis should be on providing general security for all units in the society.

A Professor of Education at the Lagos State University, Ademola Onifade, for instance, urged the coalition to divert its energy towards securing the country as a whole.

He stated, “If you secure only the schools, what happens when these pupils go home after school? The truth is that they can be abducted anywhere. The urgent need, as far as I am concerned, is to make the whole country safe.

“We have so many issues in the education sector. More than one million secondary school leavers struggle to gain admission to higher institutions of learning every year. Meanwhile, there are only 600,000 spaces. Let us be serious as a country. I think there is the need to reintroduce the Higher School Certificate in the system so that when you leave secondary school, not all of you have to go to the university. There is also the need to focus on our vocational and technical education. The 6-3-3-4 system addresses that, but it is only on paper.”

In a similar vein, an education consultant, Dr. Olusegun Omisore, noted that while the initiative was a noble project, it was a misplacement of priority. He attributed the daily attacks on schools in the North to inadequate military presence.

He said, “I see it as a fire brigade approach. Attacks on schools in the North or anywhere is just a microcosm of the larger issue. If the country is secure, schools will also be secure. We should address the structural violence that inflicts the generality of the country.

“Look at the last election in Ekiti State, look at what was achieved with the presence of security personnel. If we had that in Chibok, no insurgent would invade the school. We have about four states in the region under daily attacks. If you target schools alone, when the pupils go on holiday, are you going to follow them to their homes? The government and all stakeholders have to design a holistic approach.”

Not long ago, an economist, Mr. Henry Boyo, had also canvassed a comprehensive strategy, which, according to him, will address access, funding and sundry issues in the education sector. He had stated, “It is certainly true that the social turmoil caused by the Boko Haram and our lack of a coherent and responsible educational plan and the heavy dose of corruption in public spending are all favours to those countries who benefit from our confusion.

“Evidently, Gordon Brown’s pledge of $10m and the additional $10m from President Jonathan will ultimately be too small to make any meaningful impact. Let us assume that the Safe School Initiative would achieve its objectives of providing safe and better learning environment for our youths. Thereafter, however, what happens, when these youths finally leave school, with very limited opportunities for further education or job placement?’’ he said.

But while experts argue on the viability of the SSI, findings show that the intervention is targeting success stories recorded in war-torn countries. An international non-government organisation, the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, recently released a report of 25 countries, which have engaged different communities to ensure continuous school attendance. Some of these include Nepal, Liberia, Kenya and Uganda.

For instance, countries such as Syria and Afghanistan make use of youths in the community to check pupils’ bags at the school gate. In Nepal, the inauguration of the Schools as Zones of Peace Project is to combat attacks on schools while, in Uganda, the United Nations Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism is in place.

However, the GCPEA warns that community mobilisation processes may be delayed and where acceptable, they abhor half-hearted commitment from donors. According to the report, the community must not see such intervention as foreign. For any such programme to survive, the GCPEA argues, the community must initiate, inspire and implement it.

“Each setting is unique and any intervention must be adapted to the specific political, cultural and environmental context, it added.

Now, the unsuccessful attempts by the Federal Government to recover more than 200 girls kidnapped from the Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, is still a global embarrassment.

Academic activities had before the recent cases of abductions, also come under the firepower of the insurgents. Last year, the Yobe State Government reported the razing of no fewer than 209 schools by the militants. The Federal Government last March also announced the closure of five schools in the North. A statement from the Minister for Education, Mr. Nyesom Wike, cited the location of these schools in ‘high risk areas’.

The schools affected are the Federal Government Girls College, Munguno; the Federal Science and Technical College, Lassa, in Borno States; the Federal Government College, Potiskum; the Federal Government College Buni Yadi, in Yobe States and the Federal Science and Technical College, Michika, Adamawa State.