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The Executive Director, Nigeria Network of Non-Governmental Organisations, Oyebisi Oluseyi, has said that parents have a say in the ongoing strike action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, as they are critical stakeholders in the educational sector.
Oluseyi disclosed this, Tuesday, at a press conference in Lagos. He stated that parents needed to get involved in matters regarding the ongoing strike.
He said, “Parents need to see themselves as critical stakeholders in the educational sector. They are to get involved in conversations regarding ASUU and find a balance. They have a say in what is happening, they should not always wait for human rights defenders and others.
“They are major stakeholders because they’re the ones who paid the school fees so parents are the customers, universities are the service providers and the government provides the regulation.
“The ASUU strike shows us that parents are not seeing themselves as stakeholders, because if they are, they would have joined their wards in maybe writing letters to the government or join them on the street, engaging in peaceful assemblies. We need everyone at the table, the parents, the lecturers and the government.”
Speaking on the need for the Federal Government to support the NGOs, the Executive Director stated the need for the government to create unrestrictive regulations.
He said, “Where there are restrictive regulations, these NGO’s can’t work. Our admonition to the government is to make these regulations unrestrictive. They should help non-profits to do more. Let their regulations be enabling and easy for us to comply.”
The founder of the Dolly Children Foundation, Adedolapo Osutunyin, noted that there was the need for the government to consider school children in the outskirts who had been neglected for so long.
She said, “What we observed in the Magboro, Wawa and the Arepo area, is that these localities might have a primary school but no secondary school, so the children have to travel quite a distance. The government needs to revisit and reconsider that a school should not be far from each community. In order to reach the unreached and reduce the rate of out of school children, stakeholders in the education sector should consider the outskirts too. Everyone can’t be at the state capital, there is need to not forget the ones outside too.”
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