The 'World's Biggest Lesson' Held Today
Bukola Olatunji
This Day (Lagos) - All Africa
Apr 23, 2008
As part of this year's Global Action Week (GAW), which began on Monday, the 'World's Biggest Lesson' holds today around the world, at either 4am, 8am or 3pm GMT. To make the event more meaningful, the Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA) organised a round-table on the week's theme: 'Quality Education to End Exclusion'.
Children in no fewer than 100 countries are today teaching decision makers, education stakeholders and journalists, a lesson about those who miss out on education. The lesson, tagged, 'The World's Biggest Lesson' is attempt to get officials, decision makers and media back to school and get the largest number of individuals taking the same lesson at the same time.
It has been designed by the Global Campaign for Education, this year, to draw attention to those who are excluded from education. They include girls, women, children with special needs, working children, migrant and nomadic families, children of parents living below poverty lines, HIV/AIDS Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVCs), pregnant teenagers, rural children as well as adults. No fewer than 72 million children and 750 million adults miss out on education. The theme of this year's Global Action Week on Education for All, which began on Monday is, 'Quality Education to End Exclusion'.
The lesson will last about 30 minutes and can be tailored to suit the national curriculum of each country. It could be a part of many other activities for the day and can take place either in a classroom, a Town Hall, Church or any open place for that matter. At the end of the lesson, a roll is taken and the report submitted to the global organisers by My 10.
The overall aim is to ensure that education gets the attention it deserves worldwide. It will explain the importance of getting quality education, the number of people who do not get an education and the impact not being able to read, write or count has on someone's life. It will also 'teach' politicians a lesson about the importance of education and the need to take urgent action. This will either mean presenting them with materials, if they are present in the class or sending these to them if they are not.
In support of the Week, UNESCO is also organising an online discussion forum on the theme: 'Quality Education and Inclusion', from the April 1 to 30. The online discussion forums will provide a platform for sharing information, views and good practices. The main themes and key questions that the discussions will address are, Quality Education for All, Enhancing Learning, Faces of the Excluded, Inclusive Education in Action and Voices of Youth. While the first four are open to all, the last is a special space for children and young people to exchange their views.
Nigeria will be joining the rest of the world to mark the week and participate in 'The Big Lesson'. But only if these activities are followed with concrete action can they be meaningful. Concrete action would mean that adequate funds are budgeted for education and that these are used for the purposes meant, with the civil society being active participants in monitoring the expenditure to check corruption.
No fewer than 50 participants, drawn from the civil society, government, international development partners and the media, who participated in a one-day roundtable, organised by the Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA) to deliberate on quality education to end exclusion, agreed on these, among other recommendations made at the end of the meeting.
Paper presenters included the Senior Special Assistant to the President on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Mrs. Amina Ibrahim; Country Director of Action Aid Nigeria, Dr.Otive Igbuzor; Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education (NMEC), Dr Dayo Olagunju, Ms Ellen Thompson, Ms. Fadekemi Akinfaderin and the National Moderator of CSACEFA Felicia Onibon.
The Federal Ministry of Education, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) and National Teachers' Institute (NTI) were also represented.
Each of the paper presenters make a case for the poor and excluded, indigent children, girls and women, Orphan and Vulnerable Children (OVC), children with special needs and the physically challenged, as well as adult literacy and non formal education.
At the end of the paper presentations, participants observed that there was need to improve and scale up best practices, the school curriculum is over loaded, quality of teachers low and good infrastructure is lacking. They also observed that there are no good policy and strategy, while the one in place is poorly implemented.
Factors responsible for exclusion include, poverty, cost of education, culture and religion, as well as violence in school, stigmatization and lack of accessibility to education by the vulnerable groups, such as girls suffering from Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF), widows etc.
Lack of capacity building for teachers, poor budgeting and funding (for both formal and non-formal education) and lack of mechanisms for sustainability are also challenges that must be surmounted.
In a communiqué issued at the end of the roundtable, the participants stressed that education is a right and not just a privilege for every citizen in Nigeria. Therefore, all stakeholders should come together to provide accessible education for all including the OVC, ensure violence-free school environment and provide professional counseling for victims of violence in schools.
Government should make policy with the interest of the physical challenged and work with non governmental organizations to provide adequate school support for the physical challenged, orphans and vulnerable children.
They also advocated for stronger partnership between government and private partnership. Government and all relevant stakeholders should ensure that there is no first and second class education in Nigeria, while formulating committed programmes to fights poverty. Legislators, Civil Society organisations and other stakeholders must take up oversight functions of making sure that funds allocated to education reach their target.
Civil Society Organisations must speak out for the excluded, with more advocacy targeted at traditional and religious leaders. Finally, the Teachers' Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) should be empowered to do more capacity building workshop for teachers.
