…says implementation of CRA in Nig is far below average
Dr. Obiorah Edogor, is a Mass Communication lecturer at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka Anambra State and Child Rights Advocate, in this chat with Naijablitznews.com Associate Editor, Gloria Ikibah, he spoke extensively on why the university domesticated Child Rights Reporting into its journalism curriculum and the general studies course as UNICEF worked with the National Universities Commission (NUC) and the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) to include the course in all of the unbundled Mass Communication courses, called JMS Journalism and Media Studies 403” and that the course would empower journalists-in-training with the capacity and understanding of the issues around child rights and how to report them.
Hear him:
What do you mean by child right curriculum?
Child rights curriculum is the outlined educational programmes which are to guide the teaching and learning of everything approved to be taught concerning the natural entitlements and privileges that every child should have or enjoy as a human being.
Why did you introduce it in the university system, one would have thought it will be in secondary school?
I feel that it was introduced in the university system as the best place where those who would learn it could easily put it into practice. The lecturers could research different dimensions of it, and the university students with their level of maturity would be guided by it.
The students could also take the messages back to their homes more than the secondary school students. However, it is not out of place to have it in secondary schools, too.
Of what benefits is this curriculum to the achievements of the implementation of the Child Rights Act?
The curriculum will be useful towards achievements of the implementation of the Child’s Rights Act 2003 because it is the easiest way to teach the students about the contents of the CRA of Nigeria. It is a way of making students have knowledge of their rights and responsibilities as provided in the CRA 2003.
How will you score the implementation of the Act in Nigeria?
I will score the implementation of the Act in Nigeria very poor because of the different concerned individuals and the relevant government agents’ lackadaisical attitude toward practical protection of the rights of the child in many angles.
How many universities have introduced the child rights curriculum?
I don’t have the exact number of universities that have introduced the child rights curriculum in Nigeria, but I say that every department of Mass Communication in Nigeria is expected to have introduced from 2019, because it was part of the Benchmark Minimum Academic Standard which all mass communication stakeholders including lecturers selected from different universities, representatives of different communication regulatory bodies and relevant international organisations prepared for teaching undergraduate programmes of mass communication as directed by the National Universities Commission (NUC).
However, I must emphasise that Nnamdi Azikiwe University is one Nigerian university that has done exceptionally well with regard to the implementation of child rights reporting and education curriculum. The university Senate has approved introduction of child rights courses in the General Studies Unit, faculties of education, law, and the social sciences. That’s why I facilitated UNICEF partnership with the university to train the lecturers who would teach the newly introduced courses in the university.
FIRST PUBLISHED ON July 23, 2023