Indications yesterday emerged that since the launch of the
Despite the launch of Safe Schools Initiative in 2014, attacks on educational institutions in
The Safe Schools Initiative was launched at the
The initiative was to ensure that young people are not only safe in going to school but are also provided with an environment ripe for learning, growth and development free of fear.
However, seven years after, the lack of safety measures in schools have ignited fear in the lives of thousands of Nigerians with so many schools coming under attacks.
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The programme, which was set up in response to the growing number of violations against the right to education after the kidnapping of the Chibok schoolgirls, has apparently not been yielding the expected results with many of the schools, especially in
Sadly, as of today, it is not clear how much money has been raised and how much has been done to keep schools safe, but whatever has been done does not seem to have scratched the surface of the problem with hundreds of students attacked and kidnapped from their schools this year.
The kidnapping of hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls from Chibok seven years ago led to the launch of a multi-million dollar plan, backed by a former
"The aim of the plan is to ensure that young people are not only safe in going to school but that we also provide an environment ripe for learning, growth and development free of fear," said
There were some successes including the provision of prefabricated classrooms and learning materials for children in camps for displaced people, but the plan was largely abandoned after an elaborate launch in
While the recent spate of school kidnappings in the northern parts of
Dr Ibrahim Zikirullahi, executive director,
"To stop further attacks, we believe there should be a common template for securing places of learning across the country, especially in the North. We can see that the attacks on schools take a similar pattern of groups of criminals invading the school premises.
"It is clear that the criminals terrorising schools at the moment are part of the out-of- school population of yesterday. The millions of children
He said the very first reason why bandits, terrorists and other criminal elements are attacking schools is that from an operational point of view, the schools are soft targets.
The initiative was initially implemented in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, already in a declared state of emergency.
When contacted for reaction, the Permanent Secretary,
But chairman of the Board, Dr. Shettima Kullima, in his response, said the
He said particularly around 2016, the money was with SUBEB, but because of the way parents were demanding for the money, he felt it was embarrassing for SUBEB to handle the money , so the Board made transfer of the whole fund to the ministry of education.
When asked if Borno received the money then, Dr Kullima said: "You see, when I came in 2015 as executive chairman of SUBEB, the way they were doing everything, I asked them to transfer the whole thing to the ministry of education.
Maybe because the people at the ministry are new, they might not know much about the issue," the SUBEB chairman said.
Others have also called on government to direct the attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), to probe the allegations of missing, mismanaged or diverted
Similarly, a non-governmental organisation, the
The organisation in the letter, further urged the President to "ask the United Nations Special Envoy for
He said, "Direct Mr Malami and appropriate anti-corruption agencies to investigate why the Safe Schools Initiative, established to bolster security at schools in response to the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls, has failed to stop frequent abductions of students and to ensure the safety and security of Nigerian children in schools across the country."
SERAP also urged
SERAP's letter , in a letter dated
The group said, "Rather than pushing to raise more funds for the Safe Schools Initiative programme, your government should prioritise and ensure a thorough, transparent, and effective investigation into the spending of the
It further reminded the Nigerian government that it had a legal obligation to protect Nigerian children from all forms of violence and other human rights abuses including abductions, killings, and to prevent and combat corruption in the spending of funds budgeted to improve safety and security in schools.
According to SERAP, attacks on students, teachers, and their families violate constitutional and international human rights law and force many families to keep their children at home.
SERAP noted that the federal government has a responsibility to ensure that federal authorities and state governments are transparent and accountable to Nigerians in how they spend safe schools funds, and to tread carefully in raising additional funds before probing the spending of the
However, efforts to get the
The group added that education was a basic right enshrined in various international treaties ratified by
The letter is copied to Mr Malami; Professor Bolaji Owasanoye, chairman
The Safe Schools Initiative entails a combination of: transfer of secondary students to other states; support of education in IDP camps; pilot safe schools models including community mobilisation.
The initiative was initially implemented in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states, already in a declared state of emergency.
The government of
Donations
The US donated
The Minister of Finance, Dr
"Today, I am happy to announce that the
"I am also happy to inform you that the government of
"As you are aware, the safe schools initiative was launched by the President and the
"It is also to help teachers to teach, so that we will never again experience the abduction of school children from schools, like it happened in Chibok community", she said.
She added that since the inauguration of the initiative, the federal government had built strong partnerships with government donor agencies and the private sector.
According to her, a trust fund domiciled at the
"We have also received donations of £2 million from
"Other donors include
The minister said the initiative also received a
We Don't Have Information On Missing
Meanwhile, the
EFCC spokesperson,
Kastina Government Deploys Local Dogs In Schools
Meanwhile, the Katsina State government has deployed local dogs in boarding schools to compliment other security strategies against abduction and attacks on schools.
The state commissioner for Education, Dr Badamasi Lawal Charanchi, noted that the dogs were deployed due to their natural intelligence to fight evil.
He said, "Dogs are animals and by their nature and inbuilt capacity or mechanism I think they can smell far away than human beings, especially objects and persons.
"What many people don't understand is that they are born with. It is part and parcel of them and that is why we look at psychology. So, whether a dog is trained or not, it has the powers to do what we want it to do but if you have a particular trainer for a particular thing you want it to do you can as well enhance the dog.
"They already have an inbuilt capacity to smell evil and that is the most important thing we want them to do."
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