Speeding up children’s education has negative consequences — Experts

AS part of its many activities to mark this year’s Children’s Day, Mother’s Love Initiative, a non-government organisation (NGO), has condemned what it called the ‘Hurried Child Syndrome’ in children’s education.

The NGO said that “rushing adolescents and youths through education threatens their wellbeing and mental development.”

Experts who gathered in Abuja on the invitation of Mother’s Love Initiative, unanimously said that the ‘Hurried Child Syndrome,’ is a psychosocial maladjustment inflicted on adolescents and youths, as a result of hurrying them through educational and developmental milestones.

Founder of the initiative, Mrs Hantu Enwemadu, in her opening remarks during a ceremony to mark the International Children’s Day, organised by the group in Abuja, said there was a need to stop the practice as it often affects the social and emotional development, as well as the progress of the child.

According to her, rushing a child through school has been linked with mental stress and low emotional intelligence that can lead to drug abuse, violence and even suicide.

“What we are saying is that, there is a need to inform the government, the Nigerian society, school system, especially parents, to stop hurrying our children through education.

“Basically, we are always hurrying the children; and that is why you will see children who are just eight years old in secondary school.

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“These children are skipping a whole four years in primary school, and this has a huge impact on them and their wellbeing. This can also affect the future of our country,” Enwemadu noted.

She, therefore, called on the government at all levels, school owners, parents, and other stakeholders, to take action towards halting the practice.

Enwemadu stated that the group believed that through sensitisation and re-orientation, people would understand the dangers in hurrying children through the educational system.

In his remark, the deputy director, Secondary Education Department, Ministry of Education, Mr Achede Joseph, called on parents to stop cutting corners when it comes to their children’s education.

“I want to call on parents to do the right thing as this has a great impact on the future of their children,” Joseph said.

Also speaking at the event, a child development specialist, Mr Adeyemi Adebayo, noted that the society is crowded with children with negative behaviours due to the impact of the ‘Hurried Child Syndrome.’

“When you hear that a young and intelligent man got into the university at the age of 14 years and graduated before clocking 19 years, later got married and began to beat his wife, one begins to wonder why he is doing that in spite of his intelligence. This is what we call emotional deficiency,” he noted.

“It is only a child who has fully-developed and passed through the educational system at the right age that can be referred to as a properly formed child,” Adebayo said.

He noted that the initiative was apt, timely, and would solve a lot of issues regarding what is being experienced in the schools, homes, society and the country at large.

A student, Ayoyinka Olunoju, of the Government Senior Secondary School, Pyanksa, Maitama, commended the organisers of the programme, saying it was very educational.

Olunoju said that the initiative had exposed him to the understanding that there was no need for a child skipping classes as  such practice would affect the child in future.