By Dr. Rachael Misan-Ruppee
It is cheery news that our organisation – Civil Society Action Coalition on Education For All (CSACEFA) has attained the silver age of 25 in its tortuous journey of championing impactful advocacy and crafting novel initiatives geared at promoting quality education for all in Nigeria. This is a commendable milestone and a testament to the coalition’s commitment to drive its vision to fruition, in sync with Goal 4 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS).
Looking back, from year 2000 when the CSACEFA’s vision was hoisted and collective action was ignited to bring the vision to fruition, it has been a tremendous hub of activities successfully executed by the leadership of CSACEFA in collaboration with the members of the organisation. Interestingly, it has been a commendable success all the way, despite inherent challenges.
Succinctly speaking, the tangible achievements that define the operations of CSACEFA over the years, underscore the pragmatism, ingenuity and inspiring leadership content the formidable Board of Trustees, and the Executive Directors have diligently and adroitly deployed in the course of carrying out their routine duties.
In the same vein, the commitments and zeal that the organisational and individual members of the coalition have brought to bear in their supportive roles cannot be glossed over. Inspiringly, in different contexts and capacities, these organisations have dutifully domesticated CSACEFA’s vision and thematic areas, and are ingenuously breaking grounds and making unprecedented positive imparts in our society. On this note, CSACEFA Delta State is proud to be a member and part of CSACEFA success story. No doubts, the journey had been stormy but eventful in every sense of the word.
Without mincing words, core activities of the coalition doting its sphere of operations such as organising forums, symposia, media events, advocacy, and routine sensitization have been capped with unrivalled success, just as several opportunities have been provided for the underserved children to acquire basic education. Suffice it to say that as we celebrate our success on the occasion of CSACEFA’s 25th year anniversary, we must be reminded of the fact that a lot of work lies ahead.
I therefore, charge us to turn our ears to the frightening statement credited to UNICEF that “Even though primary education is officially free and compulsory in Nigeria, about 10.5 million of the country’s children aged 5-14 years are not in school; only 61 percent of 6-11 year-olds regularly attend primary school; and only 35.6 percent of children aged 36-59 months receive early childhood education. Thus, One in every five of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria.”
It behoves us to grasp the fact that gender, like poverty, is an important factor in the pattern of educational marginalization in our country. This is glaring and starkly obvious among states in the north-east and north-west of Nigeria where female primary net attendance rates are 47.7 percent and 47.3 percent, respectively, meaning that more than half of the girls are not in school.
Truth is, the education deprivation in northern Nigeria is driven by economic barriers and socio-cultural norms and practices that discourage attendance in formal education, especially for girls. Going forward, l encourage us to strengthen our interventions to address issues of poverty and gender inequality. These are crucial components of our thematic areas that are seriously under huge threat and demand more stringent action from us.
In a similar vein, the worsening poverty situation in Nigeria has been aptly captured by UNICEF, stating that an estimated 2 million Nigerian children are suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM). This narrative is worsening just as it calls on CSACEFA to double efforts to influence government policies towards eradicating poverty in Nigeria, in line with the goal 1 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which charges us to end poverty in all its forms everywhere.
Congratulations to CSACEFA.
God Bless All…!
Dr. Rachael Misan-Ruppee is a Development Consultant