Every
child has a right to education. Unfortunately, not every child enjoys this
right. Political, economic or social instability in different parts of the
world have deprived many children from attending school.
Some children have been let down by authorities not
honoring their commitments to education. In other instances, many children enroll in
schools but fail to learn the basic skills they need due to the poor quality of education
they receive. Some children are too hungry or incapable of learning effectively and
others drop out of school because of poverty or discrimination
based on their gender, ethnicity, social class or health status.
It is vital to address this situation
because education brings multiple and long-lasting benefits for children, families
and whole communities.
The
education of the Nigerian child can be realized if the aims of the most Nigeria’s
8 millennium development goals are met. The goals are:
1. To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. To achieve universal primary education
3. To promote gender equality and empower women.
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development
Children
are the future leaders of tomorrow. Educating the Nigerian Child helps to
achieve the first three goals directly while indirectly achieves the rest. Education increases an
individual’s lifetime earnings, helping to break the poverty cycle. Education of a child will help to eradicate poverty because when the
child goes to school and graduates from University, he or she can use his
tertiary educational qualification to get a good job and be useful to the
society.
Primary
and secondary education are basic formal educational levels required for
anybody to be literate and function well in society. The education of female
children will play a big role in empowering them when they grow up to become
women in society thereby helping to achieve the third goals. In addition, education
has important links with family health and nutrition. Investing in education is the best
way to develop our nation because education gives people the skills they need
to help themselves out of poverty and into prosperity. As a result, children’s
education should be a priority. In terms of wider community benefits, higher
levels of educational achievement have been linked to stronger democracies and
increased peace and security.
There’s a saying that it takes a village to raise a child. It
also takes a teacher to teach the child. Corp members have crucial roles to
play in nation building especially relating the children’s education which also
contributes to a significant part of their future. In recent times, most corp members
are posted to primary and secondary schools while a few are posted to
universities and colleges. This I believe is a measure by the federal
government to make up for shortage of skilled manpower in the educational
sector. We all have the unique opportunity of contributing significantly in the
educational development of children most especially the less privileged ones
and those in the rural areas. Teachers are crucial stakeholders in Nation
building. The development of any nation depends mainly on inputs made by her
citizens. The quality of input depends to a large extent on the percentage of the population with a
level of education adequate enough for rapid economic and social development. Because corp members
are usually more than qualified to impart some knowledge to children and
teenagers from the age range of 0 to at about 17 years of age (kindergarten to
least senior secondary, they are indispensable in filling the gap of inadequate
teachers or educators in the different schools. As a result we have the unique opportunity of
impacting on children’s lives by contributing to and improving their education.
Many children who are being deprived of quality education
because of their social status. Majority of these children are enrolled in
public schools were educational facilities are either far-stretched or
inadequate. The facilities in private schools cannot be easily compared with
those in public schools because only children from rich or middle class
families are able to afford these standards of education. Unfortunately these
children happen to fall in the majority. Majority of Nigerian children come
from low income families. This often places them at a disadvantage or restricts
them from accessing quality education because most of them are enrolled in
public schools. Most of these public schools (usually in the rural areas)
either have many unqualified teaching staff or substandard or inadequate
educational facilities. Only a few of the historical public schools have
established good educational standard. In the rural areas where there are
situations whereby it is imperative for the child to accompany other family
members to the farm to make ends meet or fend for the family in other
situation, they hawk items for sale when they are supposed to be in school.
This is a form of child abuse which should be discouraged. If the rural
community is confident that their children and wards will benefit by sending
them to school, don’t you think they would encourage them to do so in lieu of
dropping out to do other things?
Education is both a right and the bedrock of national
development.
In my opinion, Nigeria has the potential of becoming a great country. She shouldn't be content on past glories. As the giant of Africa, she must focus on investing on the education of future generations, if she is willing to
actively contribute our own quota to make this gigantism a strength. Corp members and specifically good
patriots have crucial roles to make this reality. Many corp members in the past
have set commendable feats in the various communities they have served and as a
result, some of them won state and national wards besides getting recognition
from their respective communities. I believe this should be an incentive for us
to follow their example and even strive to do better than they have
accomplished. Corp members have conducted elections even in radical and
unstable communities in Nigeria, solicited for funds from top government
officials, provided healthcare in rural communities where affordable social
amenities are either lacking or scarce, strived to teach less privileged
student in communities where transportation is inadequate, inefficient and
risky, etc. to name a few.
I would like to admonish all corp members serving in their
different respective places of primary assignment most especially those in the
secondary and primary schools to be zealous and diligent in their work because
they have been placed in very important and key positions indispensable to
national development, which will also make a lot of difference in the lives of
potential future leaders of tomorrow. Inasmuch as the NYSC is the saving grace of educational infrastructural access in Nigeria, it would be better still to invest in more training of skilled teachers across the country to fill in in areas where educatiuon is inadequate or lacking. I believe we can also apply this courage
in educating our younger generation so that posterity will be grateful to us
for touching their lives through education.
