Yesterday was Children’s Day, and it was a day that children were celebrated in diverse events in a bid to give them the opportunity to get involved in discussions that affect them and also raise awareness of issues peculiar to them while trying to create memorable experiences that aid development.
And this year, celebrations had diverse focus that bordered on helping children gain some experience and inspire them to work hard for the future, creating an environment that gives them a sense of importance and self worth, emphasizing the need for every child to have a right, reimagining a better future for all children and calling for urgent action to address child rights fit for the current realities in the society.
Also, there was conversation on the need to create a better future for every child by raising awareness of issues that matter to children and young people, need for inclusive practices to ensure no child is left behind regardless of their circumstances or abilities and respecting every child’s rights, regardless of their ethnicity, gender, religion, language, wealth, or physical or mental ability.
The celebration encouraged the society to actively listen to children’s hopes and visions for the future, promoting their right to participation and empowering their voices and highlighting any plights that young Nigerians might face and charting ways to address these to help support the children of Nigeria.
The day is a solemn reminder and celebration of the rights of children in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to create an environment where every child can thrive.
The most important right of the child is education and according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), “Even though primary education is officially free and compulsory, about 10.5 million of the country’s children aged 5-14 years are not in school. Only 61 per cent of 6-11-year-olds regularly attend primary school and only 35.6 per cent of children aged 36-59 months receive early childhood education. In the northern part of the country, the picture is even bleaker, with a net attendance rate of 53 per cent. Getting out-of-school children back into education poses a massive challenge’’.
Looking at the plight of some pupils and students in many schools in Nigeria; many learn in dilapidated classrooms. The classrooms are inadequate and even where they exist, they lack basic infrastructure for effective teaching and learning to take place. There are no well-educated teachers, no functional libraries, no laboratories and workshop equipment among others. Children learning under these conditions cannot compete with other children from other parts of the world.
Access to qualitative education is increasingly difficult. In some parts of the country, particularly the North, the so-called almajiri syndrome is symptomatic of the sickening denial of access to education for vulnerable children. It must be noted that such children can easily become tools in the hands of unscrupulous people.
The earliest celebration of Children’s Day can be traced back to the United States of America in 1857, where a certain Pastor Charles Leonard held a service for children at his church. Locally, the service became known as Children’s Day.
After that, similar celebrations to celebrate children began to occur in different parts of the world.
The International Children’s Day was first marked in Turkey on April 23, 1920. Later, on June 1, 1925, during the World Conference on the Welfare of Children, International Children’s Day was declared though the Universal Children’s Day is celebrated on November 20.
Parents, too, need to play a critical role in the shaping and orientation of their children. Many have put the search for worldly things above education, care and love that their children need, exposing them to all forms of social abuse. The high prevalence of broken homes in the country has serious consequences on the moral upbringing of children and youths.
The Universal Basic Education Commission and the various Universal Basic Education Boards across the 36 states of the federation as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) should be re-engineered in order to guarantee at least basic education to every Nigerian child. The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) should do more to combat child trafficking, child labour, child abuse, forced prostitution and all other forms of abuse so that children are not exposed to these dangers at this stage of their lives.
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