By Chizoba Ogbeche
Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mr. Mike Omeri, has said that security awareness of schools and its host communities would curb insurgent attacks on schools.
Omeri stated this during a two-day workshop to flag-off the agency’s security awareness campaign for public and private schools in the FCT.
He said that Security Education for Public and Private Schools Stakeholders under the Safe School Initiative was part of a robust awareness drive to raise the security alertness of school communities as well as parents of students, drawing from the lessons learnt from past experiences.
Omeri added that “given the reality of the security challenges facing us as a nation, our schools have unfortunately become targets of attacks by criminal elements with students and teachers mostly the victims.”
He said: “The attendant vandalism of school properties and its effect on the quality of education available to students of such schools in the aftermath of such attacks are equally a cause of concern to the federal government and all lovers of education.
“All over the world, best practices that ensure schools are safe for studies and study related activities include critical review of past security breaches at schools followed by Lessons Learned Information Sharing (LLIS). Based on those lessons, stakeholders in school environments are better informed and equipped to be proactive in school safety management.”
The Safe School Initiative, the DG said, would focus on the best practices for the identification and reduction of risks in and around schools at different levels with particular emphasis on the children.
He said “in order to ensure this campaign is comprehensive, we are deploying all our numerous social mobilisation and sensitisation platforms including the Campus Focus, Community Dialogue, Interfaith Forum, Community Theatre, Bulk Text Messaging, NOA Community Radio, Workshops, Road Walks, Radio and Television Jingles as well as Information, Education and Communication Materials (IECs).
“In addition, the NOA is engaging its structure in all 774 LGAs of the country to take this national awareness to all the nooks and crannies of the country in local languages. Consequently, this workshop will be replicated in all LGAs in the coming weeks.”
He expressed hope that at the end of the campaign “our target audience would have been equipped with the required information to ensure heightened security for our schools across the country. We also anticipate that attacks on schools and students will be sufficiently reduced.”
