-
A cross section of participants at the meeting
By: Monday Danladi, Bauchi
United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has decried the high level of lack of infrastructural, physical and psychological instability in most schools which is negatively impacting on safety of learning and teaching.
The assertion was made by the Education Specialist, UNICEF, Bauchi Field Office, Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ado which giving an opening remarks during a one-day State Level sensitisation meeting on the presentation of Bauchi State score card on the implementation of minimum standards for safe school organised by the Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) in collaboration with UNICEF, Bauchi Field Office on Tuesday.
He said that worried by the development, UNICEF facilitated a survey in 2023 to find out the situation of safe schools in the state saying that the situation was worrisome and required urgent attention by all Stakeholders.
The Education Consultant added that children in the schools are made to undergo different forms of insecurity in the schools including physical and psychological instability thereby negating the provision of education.
According to him, “The most worrisome aspects of the situation is that the children do not know where and who to report to. That is what UNICEF wants to change so that there will be solutions to the problem.”
Abdulrahman Ibrahim stressed that every school must have Safe School Focal Officer so that the children can have where and who to talk to in the case of any issues.
He then assured that UNICEF will continue to be supportive of government in ensuring safe environments in all the schools across the state.
In his presentation on safe schools ‘ score card in : Bauchi State, an Independent Education System Strengthening Consultant, Saleh Muhammad stressed that, “gThe fulfillment of children’s right to education in Nigeria remains plagued by protracted conflict, ncreasing hostilities, and growing climate-related hazards, perpetuating the out-of-school crisis, which affects 680,082 children in Bauchi state.”
He added that,” As part of its efforts to institutionalize school safety, the Nigerian government developed the Minimum Standards for Safe Schools (MSSS), which outline the minimum conditions schools must meet to uphold children’s safety.”
According to him, “The MSSS cover Six result areas: Strong School Systems, Violence Against Children, Natural Hazards, Conflict; Everyday Hazards, and Safe School Infrastructure. Each with guidelines (standards) for mitigating risks and protecting children’s well-being.”
Saleh Muhammad added that, ” In 2023, UNICEF developed and piloted a tool to monitor the implementation of the MSSS, progress and remaining gaps within schools in 10 states of the county including Bauchi State.”
The methodology used was the selection of Ten states, including Bauchi, for the pilot scheme according to the criteria set which included High primary and junior secondary out-of-school rates, Insecurity and school attacks threatened education access.
UNICEF supported safe school programming in the state as the governments expressed an interest in participating as Data was collected by trained EMIS officers.
Schools were sampled purposively based on the criteria and in round 1 (mid-2023), 5.993 schools were surveyed, in round 2, 6,638 schools were surveyed at the end of 2023.
In Bauchi, this included 387 schools in round 1 and 395 in round 2 of which 317 participated in both rounds as
Data collection showed Primary schools
339, 353 Junior secondary schools and
Senior secondary schools and 46
Public schools and 41 Private schools
Safe School Infrastructure means their ability to prevent violence against children (VAC), owing primarily to their capacity to respond to concerns about children’s well-being and their implementation of activities intended to prevent VAC at school.
On the other hand, the lowest score was in school infrastructure, which remains nonfunctional, unsafe, or inaccessible, while guidelines for access control at the school are seldom followed. Low performance was noted also in relation to everyday hazards, driven by schools’ inability to meet children’s nutrition, WASH, and health needs. Little improvement, if any, was noted between data collection rounds, with scores remaining consistently low overall and across states.
Giving the Bauchi State Summary, he stated that Bauchi total average score increased with four percentage points from 40 per cent in mid-2023 to 44 per cent at the end of 2023.
Setting up strong school systems, especially in training school- based management committees (SBMCs) on school safety Addressing violence against children at home, on the way to school and at home while Addressing natural hazards, namely in establishing early warning systems to diagnose threats.
On Everyday hazards comprising of nutrition, WASH, and health needs, the state has made less progress in improving Conflict, namely due to the inability to guarantee education continuity, Safe School Infrastructure, namely due to the lack functional, safe, accessible infrastructure and the failure to implementation of all the measures.