The Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA) has called for all inclusive education for all and increased funding for education.
Speaking when the CSACEFA team paid advocacy visit the the Executive Secretary of Imo State Secondary Education Management Board (SEMB), the Executive Chairman of Imo State Universal Basic Education Board (IMSUBEB), Commissioner for Education, the State Coordinator of CSACEFA, Imo State chapter, Elder Kenneth Amogu noted that CSACEFA Imo State is marking the 2023 Global Action Week on Education -GAWE, as stipulated by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE), which runs from 29th May to 2nd June, with the theme, Investing in a just World: Decolonizing Education financing now.
Elder Amogu, who is the Program Director of Foundation for Livelihood and Advancement and Coordinator CSACEFA Imo State noted that the essence of the visit was to advocate for increased funding for Education, increased enrollment of girl children and the marginalised in school especially the special needs students. He also added that another way to bring back over 125000 out of school students to access quality education is to fund and create a conducive learning environment. He urged the state government to increase the yearly budgetary provisions of education to provide more facilities. He said that the only way to achieve SDG 4 is to make sure that every out of school child is captured back to school before 2030. He also informed the stakeholders that Imo State is among the 13 states implementing the Education Out Loud Project (EOL). The Project will amongst other things, carry out monitoring of the use of education funds for projects, carrying school enrollment campaigns to ensure an inclusive enrollment that will support the girl child and the marginalised, support relevant stakeholder (SEMB,MOE,IMSUBEB) in preparing and making submissions during the state yearly budget preparations and defence.
In her contribution, Dr. Mrs Peace-Val Eze of Peace Val MPCS, noted that it is necessary to ensure inclusive Education so that every child would have the opportunity to go to school, stressing that there is need for both the normal and special students to study in one school environment with facilities provided for them, as this removes stigmatization a societal segregation.
Mrs Juliet Okeiyi, Executive Director of Open Arms Initiative for Sustainable Development and the Secretary of CSACEFA Imo State chapter hinted that CSACEFA Imo state will provide technical support to our relevant stakeholders, (MOE, IMSUBEB, SEMB) in ensuring that the right budget provisions are made, submitted and defended during the state bilateral budget discussions.
In their separate response, the Executive Secretary of SEMB, IMSUBEB and Commissioner for Education, Dr. Mrs. Adaugo Nwanebo, Prof. Johncliff Nwadike and Lady Dr. Ada Okwuonu respectively applauded the CSACEFA team for their efforts in ensuring that every child, especially the special needs children, dropped-out of school girl children gets quality education.
They posited that they are going to partner with CSACEFA to achieve the aim of the EOL project in the state, adding that they will also build CSACEFA activities into theirs own official activities for effective achievement of SDG 4 by 2030
They noted that the girl children are the last hope of the society and should be adequately trained and taken care of. They hinted that the issue of increased funding for education will be communicated to the appropriate authorities as according to them Education for all, can only be achieved by all.
Imo State CSACEFA team also visited Imo Girls Secondary School (Junior and Senior) and used the opportunity to speak to over 2000 students on the need to be good students and take their studies serious so that at the end of the day they make their parents and the society proud. They were also asked to notify CSACEFA about any out of school child known to them for subsequent enrollment, as CSACEFA Imo State is making arrangements to take care of them.
NIGERIA NEWSPOINT
