The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Children’s education

  • Boko Haram’s threat can’t stop our children’s education – Dapchi parents

    Following the threat allegedly issued by Boko Haram that they would re-abduct the Dapchi schoolgirls released on Wednesday if they went back to school, the parents of some of the freed girls have said that they would not give up on the education of their children on the basis of the threat.

    The members of the sect who returned the girls to Dapchi on Wednesday were said to have left a strong warning to the residents that they should not send their children to school again or they would risk being abducted.

    Some of the freed girls were also said to have claimed that the insurgents warned them on the verge of their release that they should not return to western education if they did not want to be abducted again.

    But some of the parents who spoke with our correspondent in separate responses yesterday, said the threats issued by the sect would not deter them from getting their daughters educated.

    Musa Kalla, father of Zara Musa, one of the girls abducted and brought back safely, said: “No one can stop me from educating my daughter. It is not possible for me to obey Boko Haram on that kind of advice.

    “God is the creator and the maker of everything that happens in this world. My daughter Insha Allah (by God’s grace) will continue with her school and become what God has destined her to be.”

    Another parent, Fatima Abdullahi, said that having not gone to school herself, she would never compromise her daughter’s education.

    She said: “I didn’t go to school, but I know that education is very important.

    “It is not possible for somebody to stop the education of my daughter except God says so.

    “What Boko Haram is saying is not possible for us to follow.

    “Our children will continue to go to school.

    “Islam does not forbid knowledge.”

    Fatima said that while her daughter may no longer school in Dapchi, she would not object the idea of her continuing her education elsewhere if that became necessary.

    “We cannot say now because our children are not in our custody but in the custody of the government.

    “But like I said, my daughter will go to school even if government decides to return her to me, but it may not be this school in Dapchi because we cannot have any rest of mind if our children are in that school.”

    The Secretary of the Forum of Parents of the missing Dapchi girls, Kachalla Bukar, who interacted with the insurgents when they came to Dapchi to drop off the girls including his daughter, Aisha, categorically said her daughter would continue schooling but not in Dapchi.

    He said with the kind of confidence and weapons he saw the Boko Haram insurgents display, he was convinced that nobody could stop them from going to anywhere they want to go.

    “In fact, they can even enter Damaturu and abduct girls in any school they want to,” he said.

    Asked whether he would heed Boko Haram’s advice to keep his daughter at home, Kachalla said: “We cannot send them to that particular school. It’s not safe for us to keep them at home either.

    “There is no security in that school. I can send her to either school in Nguru, Maiduguri or any other state apart from Yobe, because I have confidence that those guys can come to Damaturu and abduct girls if they want to.

    “I feel that Nguru is safer because there is a barrack there and it has only one road and plenty rivers, unlike Damaturu and Potiskum which are so porous.

    “There are many roads in Damaturu that Boko Haram can follow and you will not catch them.”

    Adamu Jumbam, one of the parents whose daughters died in the incident, told our correspondent that he had accepted his fate.

    Jumbam said: “I was troubled when other girls were seen on arrival but my daughter Aisha was said to have died along with four others on the day of their abduction.

    “All the same, I thank Almighty Allah for this and pray for the repose their souls. We can say the government has tried.”

    “The surprising thing is that Boko Haram abducted these girls and still returned then to the heart of the town in broad daylight and went back freely.

    “It is absolutely amazing. It troubles our imagination. How will Boko Haram abduct these teenagers over one month, returned them and nothing was done to them?”

  • Scholars advise Muslim parents on children’s education

    Muslim scholars have urged parents to give priority to the education of their children.

    The scholars spoke at the grand finale of the 90th anniversary of Zumratul Islamiyyah Society of Nigeria at Lagos Television (LTV 8) premises in Ikeja, the state capital.

    The chairman of the event was Dr Noheemdeen Ade Ekemode, the Medical Director of Ekemode Memorial Hospital in Lagos.

    The guest speaker Sheikh Habeeb Adam Abdullahi Al Ilori (OON) said there was an urgent need by Zumratul Islamiyyah Society and other Islamic organisations to use education as a weapon for spreading Islamic message across the country as the Christians did in the past.

    Dr Ekemode advised Muslims to contribute to the education of their children.

    He said Zumratul Islamiyyah Society had contributed to Education sector in Lagos and other parts of Nigeria with its primary and secondary schools.

    Sheikh Al Ilori, who is also the Director of Markaz Arabic Training Centre in Lagos, spoke on the anniversary topic, titled: The Role of Islamic Organisations in the Growth of Islam in Africa.

    The renowned Islamic scholar said the emergence of Muslim organisations, such as Zumratul Islamiyyah and others, was a response to the springing up of missionary schools in the early 1900 in Nigeria and the way the missionaries were using education to propagate Christianity.

    He said: “I want to appreciate what societies like Zumratul Islamiyyah and Ahmadiyya have done by establishing schools for the children. I want them to go a bit further by establishing Islamic universities to fight illiteracy among our youths, establish hospitals to take care of the health of our people and, more importantly, come up with poverty eradication initiatives to empower our people.”

    Dignitaries at the final ceremony included Oba Kabiru Sonubi, the Ayangburen of Ikorodu and Oba Semiu Orimadegun Adegboruwa, the Onigbogbo of Igbogbo, who were products of Zumratul Islamiyyah schools.

  • ‘Monitor your children’s education’

    The Sole Administrator of Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State, Mr Nurudeen Oki Bamidele, has urged parents and guardians to monitor the activities of their children and wards.

    He advised parents to give their children effective education so that they would have a secure future.

    Bamidele spoke at the distribution of the General Certificate in Education (GCE) forms to 100 pupils.

    He noted that the gesture would enable the pupils to realise their dreams of gaining admission into higher institutions.

    The local government, in the last 11 years, has been giving out free GCE forms to help pupils realise their dreams of acquiring higher education.

    Bamidele said the gesture was to fulfil his administration’s promises to make education its priority.

    He said: “The utmost importance attached to education in Nigeria, and Lagos State in particular, clearly underscores the policy thrust of the present administration in the local government.

    “Having realised the potency of education as a powerful instrument for national progress and development, we set out our plans in tandem with the policies and programmes of Lagos State Government and, indeed, our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).”

    Bamidele urged the beneficiaries to use the opportunity well.

    He said: “This is the opportunity to position yourselves for the challenges of the contemporary competitive world. Education is the currency of the Information Age. It is important you all gain the needed knowledge to be properly situated in this age.”

    One of the beneficiaries, Miss Ruth Paul, who hailed the sole administrator, noted that the gesture would be replicated with good results.

  • ‘Invest in children’s education’

    A Kaduna-based Islamic scholar, Malam Abdullahi Abba Zaria, has called on Muslim to re-dedicate themselves by investing their wealth in the education of their children irrespective of gender.

    He said doing that would earn them reward and blessings from Allah, both on earth and the hereafter. Zaria spoke  at the 2015/2016 graduation and prize giving ceremony of Family Craft and Islamic School, Ungwan Rimi, Kaduna.

    “No amount of investment in the education of a child is too much, especially Islamic education, which teaches morality, harmony, justice, fear of Allah, equity, and transparency, among other virtues,” he stated.

    He further noted that education in whatever form and manner symbolises development, fear of Allah, peace and discipline.

    According to the scholar, gender disparity in education is alien, stressing that education is paramount to every surviving being and has no sex restriction.

    “In Islam, both religious and Western education are all encompassing for human survival and Allah’s reward,” he added.

    Zaria noted that wealth, poverty, ailment, old age among others, were key to human existence in earning rewards.

    “A Muslim should see them as components that could make or mar his or her eternity and relationship with God.

    Earlier, Head Teacher of the School, Hassan Shettima, recalled that the school which started as a  nursery and primary with a teacher and a nanny with six pupils, as pioneer staff and pupils, now has an enrolment figure of over 150.

    The high point of the event was the presentation of certificates and prizes to deserving staff and pupils.

     

  • Children’s education deserve more attention

    SIR: Lately there has been remarkable dip in the academic performance of students across the country. In the last couple of years, statistics from the various national examination bodies have been nothing to write home about. Naturally the country is worried over the high failure rate of students in national examinations. The question has been: why is it so, how can it be remedied?

    The blame for this unfortunate situation has often been placed at the doorsteps of inadequate educational infrastructure and instructional materials, undedicated and even unqualified instructors. These, however, are only part of the problem and by no means all of it. There’s a crucial but often ignored aspect of the present educational conundrum. This is the role of parents.

    From my vantage position as an active player in the field, I have noted that many parents seem to see their role in the education of their children as merely in paying their fees and buying them books. Many, once they do these, almost hands off the children. They rarely monitor their academic progress, ask them how they are faring, see if they are being given assignments and if so, whether they do them, whether they ever make out time at home to study etc. Many rarely visit the school and do not attend PTA meetings.

    The task of grooming the children into useful members of society is not for the teachers or the school alone. For success in this very important endeavour, there’s need for the support and collaboration of parents. Where the influence of the school terminates, the parents must take over. The children of nowadays face too many distractions. They seem to even have lesser incentive to excel academically; left on their own many relegate their books to the background. This is why parents must watch out.

    There seem to be a relationship between parent’s interest in education and the child’s academic performance. The level of importance a parent attaches to education to a large extent determines the seriousness with which the child will approach his/her studies. Children, whose parents closely monitor their academics, check their notes and assignments scrupulously examine their report cards and offer reward or impose sanction where necessary do better than those whose parents pay little or no attention to their academic life and show little interest in their end of term assessment. How would parents even know if their children are being properly taught unless they closely monitor their academics?

    Understandably the difficult economic situation in the country which sees many parents working for longer hours and often coming home exhausted makes the close monitoring even more tasking. However, this is one duty that must never be ignored; the future of our children is at stake here. All our struggles and efforts on their behalf would have come to naught if we fail to accord the deserving attention to their studies and they eventually turn out uneducated and ill-equipped.

     

    • Ananti Ifeoma Onyinyechi

    Aba, Abia State.