By NEWS AGENCY OF NIGERIA

The Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA) has advocated for a curricular that would be relevant to the development of the country.

The National Moderator of CSACEFA, Duke Ogbureke disclosed this at the 2023 Annual General Forum of the coalition in Abuja on Wednesday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the forum with the theme: “Education 2030: Advancing CSOs Participation” brought stakeholders together to brainstorm on the actualisation of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 by 2030.

Ogbureke, who said education is bedevilled with the challenges of mismatching the curriculum with what is obtainable in real life, also called on government to focus on the education of the girl child.

“We advocate quality education particularly for the girl child because we know that when you educate a girl you educate the entire nation because of the roles they play in ensuring the sustenance of humanity.

“We will continue to charge our leaders both political and other leaders to ensure that education is funded appropriately and the type of education that you give to our people must be relevant to the development of our nation.

“This is because one of the challenges we have is mismatch of curricular and the present environment.

“So we must invest more in research to ensure that the type of education we give to our people is an empowering education, education that liberate them and empower them even as individual and not to depend on government,” he said.

Speaking on the incidence of Gender Based Violence (GBV), he said that failure of the education system was responsible for high rate of GBV in the country and must be addressed in earnest.

“It is unfortunate that incidences of gender based violence is on the rise in the country and it can be attributable to several factors- economic pressure but most importantly the failure of education in our system.

“We believe that when people are rightly educated, they would not resolve to violence way of settling disputes and conflicts.

“Conflicts will always arise but there are several other ways of settling them instead of resulting to violence.

“So it is the responsibility of all of us to ensure that the girl child and women are protected that they live in safe productive environment and that is why we are emphasising that the girl child need to have access to school.

“When a girl child is educated, she will not subject herself to violence and abusive relationships. It is lack of education that would make somebody to want to continue to subject his/herself to violent and unhealthy relationships,” he said .

Also speaking, the Minister of State for Water Resources and Sanitation, Bello Goronyo charged the coalition on their collective responsibility to dismantle educational barriers.

He urged them to ensure they form formidable force so that no child would be left behind as well as every citizenry had the opportunity to learn and thrive.

“The theme of this year’s programme, “Education for All” resonates profoundly. It is a call to action, urging us to address the barriers that hinder access to education.

“These barriers may manifest as economic disparities, gender inequality, inadequate infrastructure, or systemic issues.

“As a coalition, it is our collective responsibility to dismantle these barriers, ensuring that no child is left behind and that every citizen has the opportunity to learn and thrive.

“Let us recommit ourselves to the cause of education for all. Let us be the champions who stand up for the rights of every child to receive a quality education.

“Our actions today will shape the Nigeria of tomorrow, where every individual can contribute to building a more just, prosperous, and enlightened society,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Policy Advisor and National Coordinator, CSACEFA, Mrs Odinakachi Ahanonu, called on CSOs to come together, represent the masses and the vulnerable children to bring the out-of-school children back to the classroom.

“We just have seven years to education 2030 and looking at the way we have been working both the civil society and government, it might be very difficult for Nigeria to attain the SDG 2030.

“If you recall, 20 million out-of-school children are still counting so there is need for civil society to buckle up to do the needful to make sure they hold government accountable on education funding.

“This will ensure that all the necessary infrastructures and teachers development that need to bring this children back to school is put in place,” she said. (NAN)