Empowering Young People To Restructure Education Through Advocacy
An advocacy training on education, sponsored by Connected Development (CODE) in partnership with Civil Society Action Coalition On Education For All (CSACEFA) was held in Abuja last week.
Young people who are active in community development from different parts of Nigeria were brought together to brainstorm on how the challenges facing education sector can be tackled.
Some of the problems addressed were:
- Domestication of child right.
- Religious/Cultural practices.
- Early Marriage.
- Poor implementation of government polices on education.
- Underfunding of Education.
- Lack of Competent Teachers.
The participants were given the opportunity to proffer solutions in the various group work sessions while listening to various speakers and facilitators train them on advocacy strategies.
Chioma Osuji, a national youth advocate and policy adviser of CSACEFA while sharing her views on the state of education in Nigeria said that the National Youth Coalition on Education (NYCE) is more of a baby CSACEFA created to impact change and empower young people to restructure the education sector.
Similarly, Joseph Emmanuel Yaba, the founder of Youth Initiative For Sustainable Human Development in Africa (YISHDA) spoke on the role of young people in fostering Education for all.
Meanwhile, Alhaji Lawal, a journalist from Radio Nigeria, encouraged the youth participants to always act positive and serve as agent of change no matter how small. It is good to take that step towards change growth and development, he said.
Hamzat Lawal the Chief Executive Connected Development further spoke about the need to improve service delivery in the educational sector. He also talked about transparency and accountability and the tracking of educational fund so as to reduce or bring to an end educational crisis in Nigeria.
Some of the Global Youth Ambassadors (GYA), representing ‘A World At School’, a global initiative mobilizing efforts to deliver education and learning to the 58 million children who miss out, were also present at the training. Participants signed the #UpForSchool pledge.
