By Ajuma Edwina Ameh
An international human rights lawyer and gender advocate, Mary Izobo, has advised African nations to cancel fees in their schools and invest more in infrastructure.
Izobo, who gave the advice in an interview with Persecondnews, said to improve the standard and quality of education in Africa, there should be governmental support, mass recruitment and training of teachers.
She noted that African children were the most disadvantaged in the world regarding access to education, quality of education and equity, adding that the continent was also home to one-third of children who are not learning across the world.
“What we are not getting right is not alleviating and eliminating the barriers that stop African children from getting an education such as poverty, marginalization, parental illiteracy, conflicts, and inequality. There is also African states’ lack of allocation of adequate resources into the educational budget.
“For a change to occur there has to be a positive change in our educational system. There has to be more allotment of financial resources to the educational sector.
“We must first understand that education is a human right. Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1948 stipulates that everyone has the right to education. Therefore, every child must have access to education,” Izobo stressed.
The gender advocate cited the World Bank report which stated that girls are less likely to get access to education when compared to their male counterparts due to cultural and socio-economic factors.
The rights lawyer also said: “This means that a male child is likely to be educated than a female child. The reasons for this are not far-fetched – violence against women and girls, poverty and child marriage continues to be barriers in the way of girls getting an education.
“There has to be a change in the mindset and attitude of Africans that women and men must be treated equally and equitably.”
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