Minister of State for Education, Rt Hon Goodluck Nanah Opiah reiterated this during a press briefing to mark this year’s International Day To Protect Education From Attack, held at the Minister’s Conference Room at the Federal Ministry of Education, Abuja.
The minister revealed that necessary procedures in line with international best practices have been deployed to ensure protection of schools and students under a project tagged “School Safety Policy”
According to the minister, proactive programs like Education in Emergency Working Group, Nigeria (EiEWG) which was established in 2012 due to the challenge of armed conflict by Boko Haram insurgency in the North East Nigeria, and the Inaugurated Safe Schools Declaration (SSD) in April 2017 which Nigeria was amongst the first group of 37 counties to officially endorse the inter-governmental political commitment, ratified by President Muhamadu Buhari in 2019, are being getting due implementation attention in the ministry.
Rt Hon Opiah said that the ministry is committed to the operational terms and guidelines aimed at protecting students, teachers, schools and universities from the worst effects of armed conflict, support the continuation of education/learning even during armed conflicts, implement concrete measures to deter security forces from using schools are military base.
Further to the commitment of the ministry is the strenghtening of the monitoring and report of attacks on educational institutions; investigate and prosecute perpetrators of attacks on educational facilities and provide assistance to victims.
The minister said “in view of the above, the federal ministry of education among other strategies promotes school based management committee, designed as a strategy to enlist community participation in the management of education through the initiation, execution, administration and ownership of designated school projects”
As school plans for resumption for new academic calendar, the minister assured that measures have been put in place for safety of students of federal unity schools across the country.
Giving more insight into the 2022 edition of the event, the minister said that this is third edition and the ministry strategically chose the theme “Implementing the School Safety Policy as a Tool to protect education from attack; our Collective Responsibility ” which he added foreground the education sector hands-on actions to protect education from violence situations and armed conflict, thereby upholding the right to education and its continuity in such emergency situations as enshrined in the Safe School Declaration which Nigeria ratified on 20th March, 2019.
The minister said “the theme was devised by the ministry to create awareness on the existence of the School Safety Policy and the need for state governments, education institutions, stakeholders, civil society organisations, the military, and the general public to operationalize the guidance therein. The School Safety Policy copiously highlights the strategies for emergency preparedness in education institutions, measures for harm reduction, stakeholders to contact for help on case of imminent attack, deterrence of the military from using education institutions and procedures to ensure that education continues if the attack is inevitable”
He said that the ministry will celebrate the event with pre-activities and a grand finale. Giving more details of the celebration, the minister revealed that experts will also give informational talks on the “significance of the minimum standard document” which codified the operationalization of the School Safety Policy as a collective responsibility by all stakeholders and the entire school community including learners, parents, teachers, education administrators, parents teachers association, PTAs, school based management committees (SBMCs, and other relevant government agencies.