We Need qualitative, Compulsory Free Education-Group

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Chief Ikechukwu OkaforFrom Chuks Collins, Awka

Amid increasing concerns about the safety of school children in Nigeria, especially with the recent abduction of more than 200 school girls in Chibok, Borno state, a non-governmental organization under the aegis of Igbo Gaadi Foundation (IFMA INITIATIVE) has called for a deliberate national child-friendly, qualitative, free and compulsory education policy in the country. This, incidentally was the theme of this year’s day of the African child.

Chief Ikechukwu Okafor who is the President and indicator of the foundation, in his opening remarks at the special ceremony organized in commemoration of 2014 Day of the African Child at Irene ?Menakaya Schools, Onitsha said that there is need to rekindle the conscious minds of African leaders, the governments and all stakeholders to their responsibilities in ensuring children’s right to quality education.

He said the Foundation in partnership with Irene Menekaya Schools want Igbo leaders to domesticate the African charter on rights and welfare of the Igbo child so as to compete favourably with their peers in other climes.

According to him, the day of the African child has remained an annual celebration since 1999 when it was first held courtesy of the then Organization of African Unity(OAU) to honour the children who lost their lives in the 1976 Soweto riots in the Apartheid South Africa.

As part of the day’s activities, commemorative wreath was laid in memory of the slaint Soweto children at the occasion jointly sponsored by UNESCO, UNICEF, Grand Oil and other public spirited individuals where over one thousand students and pupils from various schools across Anambra state participated.

The Executive Director of the Menakaya Schools and an educationist, Mrs Christy Chukwukelu, commended the individuals that are in the fore front of sustaining child education and preserving the Igbo language.

She said that there is urgent need to ensure that door to education is not meant for only the children of the affluent. She urged parents not to put education amongst the least of needs because a poorly educated child cannot take his proper place as the leader of?tomorrow.

The Anambra state Commissioner of Education, Prof Kate Omenugha in a paper titled “Child-friendly Education for Igbo Child”, noted that the Igbo land was among the cultures of the world where children and women affairs occupy the lowest rung on the social ladder with its attendant sad and negative consequences.

She noted that the Igbos are legendary for hard work, entrepreneurial ?ingenuity, tenacity and immense desire to succeed which according to her has heaped more responsibilities on the Igbo child since after the Nigerian civil war at the detriment of their over all development.

Prof Omenugha said that a child-friendly education should be gender sensitive, safe and protective, engaging qualified teachers and in a healthy and hygienic environment.

The day was also used to commission the UNESCO club for global education, inauguration of Hector Peterson Memorial Ffoundation and Voice of Igbo children and the Nigerian abducted children as well as exhibition and back to Igbo culture display by children.

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