CIVIL society organisations, education stakeholders and other institutions working on education issues in the country have been charged to come up with Corporate Social Responsibilities programmes to complement government’s efforts on education as the government alone cannot fund education.
Giving the charge was the national moderator of the Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA), Mr Babatunde Omole, in his opening remarks at the high-level education policy dialogue organised by Oyo State CSACEFA, themed, Strengthening Advocacy and Social Accountability, which was held at the Ibadan Business School, Bodija, Ibadan, recently.
According to him, “most of the mission schools built by the early Church were built with tithes to serve as social and education support in the communities in order to aid the government’s effort on education.”
While he drew the attention of education stakeholders at the meeting to the state of public schools in the country, he said: “It is high time we began to give attention to the effect of insecurity on education; low level of acceptance of the girl-child in the society, low enrollment of the boy-child in school in the southeastern part of the nation, state of school infrastructures in the South West, among others.”
Harping on the underlying reasons for a high level dialogue at this time, he said: “We want to bring back that old ways of impacting knowledge in our public schools, where every child had access to high-quality education. There were so many moral teachings embedded in the school curriculum then. These things were building our mental capability, forming moral sensitivity in us as well as our integration into the society.”
He challenged education stakeholders drawn from across the state to think out of the box and not rely on the resources coming from the Federal Government alone to drive education policies, adding “there are still so many funds out there to be tapped into, even by the government.”
He then made a clarion call to the civil societies in the state to come together and work out simplified policies and strategies to bring back the glory in the public schools.”
Also speaking at the event, the programme manager of CSACEFA, Mr Adeleke Damien-Mary, while speaking on the aim of the high level dialogue meeting, noted that it was geared toward bringing Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and governments together to create social capability and strengthening the CSOs or full participation in education planning and monitoring and policy dialogue.
He warned the government against hoarding the so called ‘confidential facts’ on education, saying these are the areas the civil society can actually support the government to see that the education sector is robustly built for the good of the children and future of the youths.
While briefing the gathering on the policy of CSACEFA, the policy advisor of the organisation, Mrs Odinakachi Ahanon, stated that currently, Nigeria possesses the largest population of out-of-school learning youths, while regional differences in quality curriculum and funding charcterised the education system in Nigeria.
The Oyo State coordinator of CSACEFA, Dr Olatunji while recounting the success of the organisation in the state, disclosed that Oyo state was one of the six benefitting states that got the Education Out Loud (EOL) grant assessed by CSACEFA national headquarters from the Global Partnership for Education.
He identified paucity of funds, several protocols and bottlenecks in dealing with the relevant MDAs and scanty information from partners and stakeholders as some of the factors militating against the efforts of CSACEFA in the state.
Among other stakeholders present at the event were Oyo State coordinator, UBEC, Dr Lidia Gbagi; CEO, Sterling One Foundation,Mrs Olapeju Ibeke; representative of House Committee on Education, Oyo State of House of Assembly, Mrs Tolulope Ilori, representative of Dawn Commission, Mrs Agge Oluyomi, CSOs, among others.
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