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Tag: school children

  • Close to 300 kidnapped schoolchildren freed in Nigeria

    Close to 300 kidnapped schoolchildren freed in Nigeria

    Local officials announced on Sunday that nearly 300 Nigerian schoolchildren who were kidnapped in the northwestern state of Kaduna have been released, over two weeks after they were abducted from their school and taken into the forests.

    Since 2014, over 1,400 students have been abducted from Nigerian schools, following the infamous kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls by Boko Haram militants in Borno state’s Chibok village. Recent years have seen a concentration of abductions in the northwestern and central regions, where numerous armed groups target villagers and travelers for ransom.

    Kaduna state Gov. Uba Sani did not provide specific details regarding the release of the 287 students abducted from their school in the remote town of Kuriga on March 7, with at least 100 of them aged 12 or younger. In his statement, he expressed gratitude to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, particularly for ensuring the safe release of the abducted school children.

    President Tinubu had pledged to rescue the children without paying any ransom, though it is common for families to arrange ransom payments for kidnappings. Official acknowledgment of such payments is rare in Nigeria.

    No group has claimed responsibility for the Kaduna kidnapping, which locals attribute to bandit groups notorious for mass killings and ransom kidnappings in the conflict-affected northern region. Many of these groups comprise former herders engaged in conflicts with settled communities.

    According to sources familiar with the security situation in Nigeria’s northwest, the identity of the abductors is known. Murtala Ahmed Rufa’i, a professor of peace and conflict studies at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, and Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, a cleric involved in negotiations with the bandits, stated that the abductors are hiding in the vast and ungoverned forests of the region.

    Arrests are infrequent in Nigeria’s mass kidnappings, as victims are typically released only after families pay ransoms or through negotiations with government and security officials.

    The Kaduna governor expressed gratitude to Nigerian security forces and officials for their efforts leading to the release of the students.

    “I spent sleepless nights with the National Security Adviser, Mal. Nuhu Ribadu … fine-tuning strategies and coordinating the operations of the security agencies, which eventually resulted in this successful outcome,” he said.

  • School children who perished in Nkawkaw accident laid to rest

    School children who perished in Nkawkaw accident laid to rest

    Five school children, who tragically lost their lives in the Ampeah Memorial Institute school bus accident on the Nkawkaw highway in the Eastern region, have been laid to rest.

    The parents of the children were overcome with grief, unable to control their tears as they bid farewell to their beloved wards.

    The solemn occasion unfolded with a mass funeral service, followed by the burial of the deceased in their respective hometowns.

    In a poignant display of solidarity, over a thousand residents in Nkawkaw paid their last respects to the young pupils who perished in the devastating accident.

    The names of the departed children—Kwasi Nyarko (12), Jerome Narmenu (7), Acher Binney (4), Asare Joseph (9), and Gafktsi Marcus (3)—echoed through the mourning crowd.

    The heart-wrenching incident occurred when a Nissan Patrol vehicle, believed to be the official vehicle of the District Chief Executive for Atwima Kwanwoma in the Ashanti region, Prince Karikari, collided with the Hyundai minibus with registration GE 2291-10.

    Eyewitnesses reported that the bus driver attempted an unapproved U-turn while driving on the shoulders of the road from the Accra-Kumasi direction at a spot near Nanchia. The result was the tragic loss of five young lives.

  • Children appeal to parents to provide educational needs

    Children appeal to parents to provide educational needs

    Some children under the Child-Friendly Accountability Mechanism (CFAM) platform in the Sagnarigu and Kumbungu Districts have appealed to parents to prioritise the education of their children by providing their school needs. 

         They also called for an end to all forms of abuse against children such as child marriages, child labour, and neglect, among others, saying such abuses affected their well-being and development.  

         Master Mohammed Kamil, a form one student of Nangbagu Junior High School in the Sagnarigu Municipality, who read a statement on behalf of the CFAM members at the CFAM District Level Forum at Nangbagu, called for equal opportunities for all children at all levels to attain their potentials.  

         The CFAM members were drawn from Nangbagu, Garizegu, Katariga, Zagyiri and Gbaynamli in the Sagnarigu Municipality, and Bognaayili in the Kumbungu District of the Northern Region.  

         The forum, attended by schoolchildren, parents and representatives of some state institutions, including Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service, Department of Child, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, and chiefs, was to enable children to identify child protection gaps in their communities and advocate ways to address them. 

         The forum was organised by Markaz-Al-Bishara Child Development Programme (MABCDP) with support from Children Believe, an international non-governmental organisation. 

         As part of the forum, the children staged a drama to showcase the problems they faced in their communities regarding access to education, which included parents’ inability to provide their educational needs leaving some to drop out of school and others becoming deviants in society. 

         Madam Ann Kurugu, Director of Finance and Administration, Sagnarigu Municipal Directorate of Education, acknowledged the issues raised by the children and urged parents to always endeavour to provide for their children’s needs, especially food to eat before leaving for school.  

         Mr Samuel Abdul-Rahman, Programme Officer, Sponsorship and Child Protection, Children Believe encouraged all stakeholders to come together to work to address the issues raised by the children.  

         He said laws governing the protection of children must be enforced to punish those who abused children.  

         Mr Joshua Sayibu, Programme Manager of MABCDP, urged all stakeholders to put in place plans to address issues of child protection in their communities.  

  • About 5.8 million children in Ghana have no desks at school – Eduwatch

    About 5.8 million children in Ghana have no desks at school – Eduwatch

    Over 5.8 million children in Ghana’s public basic schools have no chair nor desk.

    The number comprised 1.2 million Kindergarten (KG), 3.2 million in primary, and 1.4 million in Junior High Schools (JHS), Africa Educational Watch, has revealed. 

    An education alert copied to the Ghana News Agency in Tema and issued by the African Education Watch (EduWatch) quoted the Ministry of Education’s data that indicated that by 2021, about 596,000 KG pupils, representing half of the national KG population and 1.28 million pupils in primary schools lacked desks in school. 

    It added that another 425,000 pupils, representing 30 per cent of JHS pupils were without writing spaces; “This brings the total number of public basic school pupils without desks to about 2.3 million,” EduWatch stated. 

    It observed that the desk situation is worse at the primary level in the most underserved regions in the education sector, namely, Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper East, Upper West, Bono East, and Oti. 

    It mentioned that the Northern Region leads with 213,252 public primary school pupils without desks, followed by Upper East (118,340) and Bono East (86,074). 

    It added that cumulatively, 638,008 representing 61 per cent of public primary school pupils in the seven underserved regions in Ghana’s education sector do not have desks. 

    “Proportionally, while all the seven regions have the percentage of public primary school pupils, lacking desks higher than the national average of 40 per cent; the North East Region leads with a maximum of 80 per cent of primary school pupils lacking desks. 

    “The Northern Region followed with 70 per cent with Upper East, Bono East, and Savanna regions all recording 60 per cent,” it noted. 

    Eduwatch emphasized that the lack of desks affected pupils’ learning, handwriting and health, as they adopt uncomfortable postures to write when classes were in session. 

    It stated that a recent study revealed that about 24 per cent of pupils in sampled schools within the Nkwanta South Municipality sat on stones to write on their laps, while 25 per cent lay on the floor in selected schools in the Zabzugu District. 

    Eduwatch estimated that 800,000 dual desks, 150,000 KG tables and 600,000 KG chairs were urgently needed in Ghana’s basic schools. 

    It added that “this is estimated to cost between GHC330 to GHC350 million, “an amount equivalent to how much Ghana’s Government spends on the free SHS in just six weeks.” 

    It added, however, that current budgetary constraints, manifested by cuts in the basic education budget and GETFund did not provide a budgetary solution in the short to medium term. 

    Touching on the perceived cause of the lack of chairs and desks, it blamed poor funding of basic education infrastructure, which manifests in the construction of schools without an adequate supply of furniture or the absence of schools and furniture in some communities. 

    Eduwatch added that between 2014 and 2020 the share of the education sector discretionary expenditure to basic education declined from 19.2 per cent to 10.9 per cent. 

    “The Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) is Ghana’s main funding engine for education infrastructure.  

    “In recent times, the quantum of GETFund expended on basic education has been on a steady decline, with only 16 per cent GETFund’s infrastructure expenditure budget allocated to basic education in 2022, with secondary education receiving about 44 per cent,” EduWatch stated. 

    According to EduWatch, the Government must change its regular public procurement approach to providing desks, which have proved grossly insufficient in resolving the challenge, to an alternative of exploring innovative, inclusive decentralized approaches that were cost-efficient. 

    It also urged the Ministry of Education to roll out a coordinated strategic approach, involving corporate Ghana, local governments, religious groups, traditional authorities, civil society and the Forestry Commission. 

    This, it noted, should culminate in a transparently managed Fund, with seed money from the Government and contributions from stakeholders, adding that a matching effort to mobilize local timber resources to produce desks at a cheaper cost at the regional level for distribution to underserved districts and schools was also workable and cost-efficient. 

  • Schoolchildren drown in Ghana in boat accident

    Schoolchildren drown in Ghana in boat accident

    The authorities in Ghana are investigating the circumstances that led to the drowning of eight schoolchildren on Lake Volta in the south-eastern region.

    Local authorities say 12 other children, who were on board the capsized boat, survived Tuesday’s accident.

    The group was travelling from Atikagome fishing village to the Wayokope community where their school is located

    The bodies of five boys and three girls between the ages of five and 12 died have been retrieved, Ghana’s National Disaster Management Organisation said.

    The incident has ignited calls for the government to improve transport infrastructure in rural communities.

    Boat accidents are frequent on Lake Volta partly due to overloading, poorly constructed boats, and the presence of tree stumps in the water.

    In April last year, seven people died in a similar accident.

    Source: BBC

  • Indonesia earthquake: Many school children killed in building collapses

    Children who were in school when a significant earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Java made up a large portion of the dead and injured, according to rescuers.

    Aprizal Mulyadi, 14, said he was trapped after “the room collapsed and my legs were buried under the rubble”.

    He said he was pulled to safety by his friend Zulfikar, who then later died after himself becoming trapped.

    Search teams are scrambling to find survivors after more than 100 people died and thousands were left homeless.

    The 5.6 magnitude quake struck a mountainous region on Monday, causing landslides that buried entire villages near the West Java town of Cianjur.

    Victims were crushed or trapped after walls and roofs caved in. “It all happened so fast,” Aprizal told AFP news agency.

    A representative of the National Search and Rescue Agency also confirmed that many of the dead were young people.

    “Most of the casualties are children because at 1pm, they were still at school,” said Henri Alfiandi.

    A collapsed school building in Cianjur, West JavaReuters
    A collapsed school building in Cianjur

    The earthquake, which struck at a shallow 10km depth, was followed by dozens of aftershocks which caused more damage to the area where poorly built homes quickly collapsed.

    In the village of Cibereum, a family was trying to retrieve the body of their eldest son – a 28-year-old man who had been crushed to death when the other levels of the home fell on him.

    Rescuers struggled to sift the rubble.

    “We have to dig through the concrete of the second floor that crushed the victim. But we have seen the body,” a military official, First Sergeant Payakun told the BBC.

    Authorities say at least 2,200 homes have been flattened and more than 13,000 people evacuated.

    People at an evacuation site
    People at an evacuation site

    President Joko Widodo visited the remote disaster zone on Tuesday where he was pictured with responders.

    “My instruction is to prioritise evacuating victims that are still trapped under rubble,” he said.

    Authorities have deployed hundreds of police and other rescuers to region to help the rescue effort.

    Mr Jokowi also pledged emergency resources and compensation to affected communities.

    Indonesia’s national disaster response agency, the BNPB, earlier on Tuesday said the number of confirmed deaths had risen to 103 with 31 people missing. This number is expected to grow, they have warned.

    Earlier, the region’s governor Ridwan Kamil had tweeted that 162 people had died and at least 300 were injured – however that figure could not yet be verified by the national agency.

    Earthquakes are common in Indonesia, which sits on the “ring of fire” area of tectonic activity in the Pacific.

    The country has a history of devastating earthquakes and tsunamis, with more than 2,000 people killed in a 2018 earthquake on the island of Sulawesi.

    Map showing location of earthquake in Indonesia

     

    Source: BBC

  • 200 PWDs get support from Juaboso District Assembly

    The Juaboso District Assembly in the Western North Region has supported 200 persons with disabilities (PWDs) in the District to help improve upon their standards of living.

    Out of the number, 31 of them received GHC1000.00 cash each, while the rest received various items such as fufu pounding machines, deep freezers, industrial machines, wheelchairs and stabilizers.

    Presenting the items to the beneficiaries, Madam Martha Kwayie Manu, District Chief Executive (DCE), explained that the presentation was the fourth in the past three years.

    She said persons with disabilities in the District were not left out in this trying times of COVID-19 Pandemic, stressing that as she visited all registered PWDs in their homes, she donated nose masks and hand Sanitizers to help protect them and their families from COVID-19.

    Madam Manu, who is also the Parliamentary Candidate for the NPP in the Juaboso Constituency, said the Assembly had set up a monitoring team to advise and ensure beneficiaries used the items for the intended purpose, so as to stop the PWDs from begging for arms on the Streets.

    She commended the government and the Local Government Ministry for equipping persons with disabilities in the country, so as to make them useful to themselves and the society.

    She also appealed to families with relatives who have disabilities not to “hide such persons” but rather register them with the Social Welfare Department to enable them get support from the District Assembly.

    Mr Williams Agyeman Duah, President of Juaboso District Persons with Disabilities Association, said the COVID-19 had negatively affected them and that the support had come at the right time.

    He commended the government and the District Assembly for the support and promised to use the items to improve upon on their livelihood.

    He called on religious institutions and Non-Governmental Organisation (NGOs) to emulate the government’s efforts by supporting them with personal protective equipment to protect PWDs against COVID-19 infection.

    Mr Duah further expressed gratitude to Madam Manu for donating quantities of hand Sanitizers and nose masks to them in their homes.

    He also advised Ghanaians especially persons with disabilities to adhere to all the protocols aimed at fighting COVID-19.

    Source: GNA

  • Stampede kills 13 Kenyan schoolchildren

    Police in Kenya say at least 13 children have been killed in a stampede at a primary school in the western town of Kakamega. Nearly 40 others were hurt.

    Some reports said the students started rushing down a narrow staircase after a teacher waved a cane at them. The staircase is said to have collapsed.

    Parents have gathered at the local hospital, waiting for news about their children.

    A Kenyan television station has tweeted a photo of the school:

    Source: bbc.com