Groups want Safe School Declaration to become law

A consortium of non-governmental organisations has begun steps to make the Safe School Declaration, SSD, to be passed into law by the National Assembly.

The organisations have subsequently held a public hearing on the matter at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, the University of Lagos, UNILAG.

The groups, including the Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, WARDC, the United Nations Democracy Fund, UNDEF the National Human Rights Commission NHRC, WANEP, SISWACHI, among others, also decried the over 14,000 attacks on schools and educational institutions globally in 2023.

According to them, making Safe School Declaration, SSD, a law would compel government at all levels to take steps, as a matter of compulsion, to stem attacks on schools.

Led by WARDC, the consortium noted that going by estimates from the United Nations, almost half of students in areas where schools had become targets of attacks dropped out due to fear.

Speaking on what the proposed law would look like,  Deputy Vice Chancellor, UNILAG, Prof. Ayo Atsenuwa, said: ” The law will capture a lot of things like bullying, sexual harassment, among others.

”It will also set things schools should have and the standards to meet to ensure the safety of students, teachers and others. It will also list the responsibilities of the government, security agencies etc.

” What are required for a school to be termed safe can vary from one place to the other. Apart from perimeter fencing, what a school in a riverine area or one that is close to a creek would need may be different from a school in an upland area.”

Founder of WARDC, Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, pointed out that following the adoption of SSD in 2015 as a policy, the time had come to make it a law.

“As at June this year, about 120 countries have adopted the declaration as a policy. But we want to take it further by making it become a law. When it becomes a law, it is a matter of compulsion that it is obeyed.

”This will make the government to pay the needed attention to the matter and we have started collating signatures in respect of this. We will soon present the bill to the National Assembly for necessary action.

“Legal framework plays a pivotal role in protecting our schools. As a nation, we must also show strong commitment to funding SSD.  We must all support effort to make safety in schools a law,” she noted.

Akiyode-Afolabi also mentioned some subtle manner schools were attacked thereby turning school premises to home for internally-displaced people, among others.

The Dean, Faculty of Law, UNILAG, Prof. Bolodeoku Ige, in his message, said 60 students from the Human Rights Clinic of the faculty have volunteered to become SSD ambassadors.

He called for the strengthening of quality assurance in the approval of school buildings to avoid cases of classroom collapse.

The Baale of Ishaga, Chief Dr Makinde Adesola, noted that most schools in the country were not safe and called for the deployment of security agents to schools.

The President of the Human Rights Clinic, Emmanuel Babatola, said being safe in schools should be treated as a fundamental human right of students.

Mrs Adeoye Adeola of Education District 11, Lagos, said when students and others were safe in schools, parents and guardians would have peace of mind.