Giving voice to voiceless children in Kaduna

The camp which was organised by Actionaid Nigeria was tagged ‘Send my friend to school, right to education training programme’ for children. According to the education programme officer of Actionaid Nigeria, Osamudiamen Owens-ibie, the camp is about building the voices of young children and making them advocates for education as well as making them speak […]

The camp which was organised by Actionaid Nigeria was tagged ‘Send my friend to school, right to education training programme’ for children. According to the education programme officer of Actionaid Nigeria, Osamudiamen Owens-ibie, the camp is about building the voices of young children and making them advocates for education as well as making them speak about their rights as children including right to quality education among others.
The ‘send my friend to school’ project she said also seeks to empower the children to ensure that every child in their community has education through different initiatives that they should take to achieve education for all. It also focuses on different campaign themes.
“In year 2013, the theme was ‘Every child needs a teacher’ where the children were encouraged to do cut-outs and send messages to world leaders to ensure that they have teachers in schools and also to ensure that the pupil to teacher ratio is adequate. This year, we are focusing on disability and education in which we are advocating for inclusive education for all including children with disability and making the school friendly for them,” she explained.
At the end of the intensive right to education training, participants which cut across school students from different communities, she said will be aware of their rights as children as well as be bold to take step to ensure that every child in their community has education including speaking to world leaders and advocating at their community level for education.
Send my friend to school project, DailyTrust gathered is funded by European Union and coordinated by Action aid UK. Our reporter observed that children at the camp had fun as they were engaged in different activities including drama presentations, which in turn they can use to make advocacy in their communities, debates, group work and lectures on fundamental human rights, child rights act and the MDGs among others.
All these are used to encourage the children to advocate and sensitize parents in their communities to send their children to school.
Commenting on the educational system in Nigeria, Osamudiamen stated that Nigeria has a long way to go compared to what is obtained outside the country.
While she decried conditions under which children in the rural areas learn, she stressed that there is a lot of room for improvement by government to ensure that every children gets quality education.
 “We cannot just sit down and complain that some students are not doing well in school, certainly, some giant strides must be taken,” she stressed.
She mentioned that there are some factors that contribute to students’ poor performance in schools including the home environment, lack of parents’ interest in their children’s education as well as too much focus on social media by students themselves among others.
“If parents show more interest in their wards’ education, government provide adequate infrastructures and the teachers on ground have the right qualification and the children themselves are dedicated to learning, we will have improved result in exams.
 Although, corrupt practices cut across all levels of government as well as in schools, little act of malpractice can also be deemed as corruption. If pupils that perform well are motivated, I believe that it will help students to desist from corrupt practices,” she noted.
She therefore called on young children to open their mouths and speak out for sending their friends to school; saying every child has a right to education.
Some of the students interviewed at the camp appreciated the organisers of the programme; saying their confidence has been boosted to know their rights and as well seek education for all irrespective of gender, religion or physical fitness.