Killings –  Christian schools lament increasing number of out of school children

By Golok Nanmwa ,Jos

Association of Christian Schools in Nigeria (ACSN) on Thursday condemned the incessant attacks on unarmed civilians communities in the country notably Plateau ,Benue ,Zamfara ,Taraba among other states and call on government to ensure that the perpetrator of this killings are arrested and prosecuted .

This was contained in a communique issued at the end of the Association,s mobilization /Mobilization and Advocacy awareness meeting held in Jos  and jointly signed Dr Ekaete Ettang and Mrs Leah Yarling the General Secretary and a copy made available to newsmen in Jos .

It reads that “While sympathizing with families  affected by the attacks ,especially in Plateau , ASCN finds the increasing number of out of school children sequel to the continued attacks and what this portends for the future of leaders of Nigeria ,we also call for the release of Miss Leah Sharibu ,the young Christian girl abducted from school and kept  because of her faith  by terrorist .

The Association also  said it is opposed the imposition of Arabic language on Nigeria schools against claim by the Universal Basic Education Board  that it was working to reduce the number of subjects being taught in schools

“ACSN particularly views the imposition of the language as a deliberate attempt to evolve a parallel official language without consideration for its implications to national growth ,unity and development or Nigeria,s social cultural peculiarities ,We are resisting this also because there are already too many subjects  and the fate of subjects like social studies and security education has only yet even been determined and so there is no need increasing the subjects .

As a group we demand a repeat of the 2018 UBE personnel Audit exercise aimed at creating a basic educational data bank for easy to get ,reliable and wholesome  statistics in line with international best practices ,this is to correct earlier errors of omission of  Christian schools which were not provided for in the audit form ,this is to ensure inclusiveness and a more detailed data collection exercise for quality decision making .

ACSN notes that Christian Religious Studies CRS is the core curriculum for all Nigeria Christian children both private and public schools ,to deny them the right to study it means to deny them their identities and heritage ,this will not be condoned and will be vehemently resisted .

We demand an accelerated response to our earlier protest letter dated March 28th 2018 against the discriminatory directive which excludes teachers of private schools from supervising WAEC examinations , we demand to know the official position of the relevant authority to that correspondence  ,other wise we would boycott WAEC examinations in the future ,but we also seek judicial review with the aim of finally resolving the matter .

The association also said ACSN views with great concern the provision of N800 million in 2018 National Budget for Arabic and Islamic education but without consideration for the advancement of Christian education in Nigeria ,we demand that N800 million naira should also be included in the budget for the advancement of Christian education and Christianity religious studies in Nigeria .

“ACSN is also willing to work with government at the state ,local government to ensure the recruitment of the the right quality of CRS teachers nationally and this is to ensure that our children in the public schools are not neglected “.

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Killings –  Christian schools lament increasing number of out of school children