The Executive Director of FlexiSAF Foundation, Mrs Amina Abubakar, has called on government to implement its policy of free basic education for all.
She made the call after embarking on a walk tagged “Walk for Education 3.0” to draw attention of government and critical stakeholders on the need to prioritize education in the country.
She said the third edition of the signature event of the Foundation, which is a fitness and advocacy walk, was to commemorate Human Rights Day 2023.
This initiative, she said, is a testament to the FlexiSAF Foundation’s unwavering commitment to ensuring that
no child is deprived of the opportunity to learn and reach their potential through quality education.
Abubakar said the theme for this year’s Walk for Education, “2030 on the Horizon: Naija’s Journey to Achieving SDG 4,” underscores the urgency of tackling Nigeria’s education crisis, which currently bears the unfortunate distinction of having the highest number of out-of-school children in the world.
“This theme serves as a clear call to action for advocacy and increased awareness,
urging stakeholders to prioritize education, particularly for marginalized children.
“It also emphasizes the critical need for increased government investment, enhanced accountability, and improved coordination in Nigeria’s education sector, signifying that, through collective effort, the ambitious goal of providing quality education for all can indeed be achieved by 2030,” she said.
She said their target was to ensure free basic education for all.
“So today our target is that we want to implement to implement the free education for all. The government says education is free, basic education is free. But a lot of children are not in school because it is not free,” she said.
She said the target of the organisation was to ensure that at least 600 children get back to school.
“After we achieve that, part of our future plans is to make this work bigger, even more strategic. The more we get embedded into the space, build our capacity, we would make it more and more big,” she said.
The Executive Director called for support from the government and other relevant stakeholders to achieve their objective.
“We are trying to better each and every year. Kindly come to our tables to make a commitment to help children go back to school. As you can see the children you have seen here are from our accelerated learning program. It is a non formal learning programme that helps kids in the community.
“The children don’t have to go to school everyday for long hours so we have community acceptability. Instead of learning for nine years, these over aged children they learn in three years. So you may be wondering what kind of expertise does this FlexiSAF Foundation have that they are giving education meant for nine years in three years. What kind of madness is that? I am telling you, it is not madness. It true. In fact it is a nationally approved accelerated education curriculum. It is also called accelrated basic education. Instead of learning in nine years these children learn in three years.
“What you saw here they learnt in less than 12 months and this girl is speaking English to you and everything. So please do well to encourage FlexiSAF foundation. The Foundation was established in 2018 and so far we have supported more than 5000 children and with your support we can do more.
“For the sponsorship program you commit 60, 000 naira only per year per child and we
We even feed this children as you can see them. We don’t believe we can do this work alone. Everybody has to come together. We have together to speak with one voice,” she said
FlexiSAF Foundation also unveiled the Young Advocate of the Year, announcing Yahaya Abubakar as the distinguished winner of the 2023 inaugural Advocate of the Year contest organized under its Young Education Advocates Program.
Abubakar said, “The Young Education Advocates Program, an integral part of the FlexiSAF Foundation’s commitment to empowering the youth, serves as a platform to nurture and recognize the efforts
of young individuals dedicated to creating social change in their communities and beyond.
“The unveiling of the Young Advocate of the Year underscores the Foundation’s dedication to fostering the next generation of social impact champions who would advance social causes, including education.
“This event not only celebrated the achievements of the awardees but also
emphasized the collective impact of youth engagement in advocating for quality education in Nigeria and transforming communities.”
Director General of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Dr Kashifu Inuwa, said digital infrastructure was necessary to get quality education.
“So at NITDA we have part of our strategic roadmap and action plan. We have a pillar to include inclusive access to digital infrastructure and services. And for the past four years we have implemented more than 1200 projects in unserved and underserved communities mostly in the education system; secondary schools and higher institutions.
“So we will do more and also we have a target of implementing the national literacy framework to achieve 95% digital literacy by 2030. So, we want to work with foundations like to define our initiative for quality and inclusive access to education through digital infrastructure. From next year we are coming up with the new initiative; learning centres will be deployed three per state. Our target is public schools where they don’t have infrastructure,” he said.
Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, who was represented by the Special Adviser to the Minister of State for Education Mrs. Claris Ojani urged the legislative arm of Government to make and implement laws that will enable children leave the streets and acquire basic education.
The Minister pledged the support of the Federal Government to the initiative by FlexiSAF.
