Why We Need To Make Education Accessible For Village Children In Nigeria

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Although a lot of efforts were made, but it seems that the educational goals set by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) almost 14 years earlier will not be achieved any time soon. The Nigerian federal government, which faced many obstacles in attaining the MDGs, claims that the accomplishments of these goals will remain challenging unless the material and human resources in Nigeria are utilised efficiently.

Need For Offering Quality Education

Considering various aspects related to accessing education, basic academic infrastructure, educational quality, instructional material and others, it is understandable that more efforts are required, especially in rural regions where there is a dearth of essential infrastructure and inadequate levels of awareness prevail.

Recently, the global NGO ActionAid Nigeria, in association with the non-governmental organisation Hope for the Village Child, Kaduna, visited a number of villages in Kaduna state in Nigeria for encouragement and refine exercise on the importance of providing access to children to high quality education. The focus was also how they can take part in motivating the children with disabilities and to help them access education.

Making Education Accessible For All

Back in 2000, world leaders met together and made a commitment to make qualitative education accessible for every child by the year 2015. However, now that 2015 is almost here, a number of nations, including Nigeria, are yet to achieve this goal of making education available to everyone. According to studies, it was found that around 57 million children across the globe are currently out of school; and more than 24 million children, who suffer from disabilities, are included in this figure.

The findings of the research have pushed students worldwide to voice their opinions and speak their right to quality education. Moreover the children are also aiming to remind the global leaders that all children must be able to attend classrooms in schools. This movement has made the catchphrase “Send my Friend to School” popular across Nigeria and other parts of Africa.

As an effect of this movement, Hope for the Village Child and Actionaid Nigeria became motivated to get involved in propagating and promoting quality and applicable education throughout Nigeria, especially in rural regions like Chikun, Igabi and Kajuru. The NGOs visited several villages, which included Kasuwan Magani, Panja and Ekuzeh in Kajuru local government area; Panzanto and Gwaraji in Igabi local government area; and Maraban Rido and Kujama in Chikun local government area.

Facing Challenges And Difficulties

Both the NGOs found that a number of difficulties were prevalent in most of the regions that were visited. These include lack of educators and shortage of sufficient education infrastructure. Moreover, the learners receive poor quality education and primary schools students are mostly unable to read and write. Moreover, the pupils in most schools can hardle speak in English, excluding secondary schools in Maraban Rido, Kujama and Kasuwan Magani.

It was also discovered that students in Kajuru local government sit on bare floors and most of the classrooms do not have a blackboard. Moreover many infrastructures were damaged as well. Apart from these, many other schools were visited and the scenario was almost same throughout different villages.

As of the now, the Nigerian government needs to take more severe steps to improve the state on education in the country. It is not only enough to improve our classrooms by providing necessary infrastructure and study materials, but we must make education easily accessible for all children in Nigeria.

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