Tai Solarin University of Education Center for Human Rights and Gender Education, CHURGE holds first conference with the theme “Emerging Issues on Human Rights and Gender Education for Sustainable Development.”
The conference which held in Lagos had discussions ranging from gender education, gender mainstreaming of agriculture and developing sexual harassment policy to tackle gender based violence in TASUED and by extension other institutions of learning.
While delivering the lead paper, Prof Mojubaolu Okome, Prof. of Political Science, African and Women Studies Brooklyn College, City University of New York, said education should be a key to economic growth, peace and stability and any country that wants to progress must achieve gender parity in education and work places.
Prof. Okome urged the Nigerian Government to consider education as a sector that needs much attention and also to meet with global requirements on Education.
Okome said, “Education is in crisis in Nigeria, education is as important as national security and should be treated as such. Regarding budget allocation for education, the standard by UNESCO is 15-20% of the total budget, but the Nigerian 2019 budget allocated 7.05% to education which is 620.5 billion naira.
“With Nigeria having the highest Number of out of school children which is about 10.5 -12 million children, it’s high time the government began to make conscious effort to improve the education sector.”
Dr. Yemi Akinbamijo, Executive Director, Forum for for Agricultural Research in Africa, FARA, Ghana who spoke on “Emerging Issues on Gender Mainstreaming for Sustainable Development” has said there’s urgent need to close the gender gap in the Agricultural sector in order to achieve food sufficiency in Nigeria.
Dr. Akinbamijo said there’s need to close the gender gap in agriculture because women are the major players in the sector, and if the gender gap continues, it would affect the entire nation.
While giving her opening remarks, Chairperson of the occasion, Ambassador Folake Marcus-Bello, urged women to rise up and take their position adding that they should contribute their quota towards the development of the nation in their little but significant ways.
The conference had in attendance speakers and participants from across the Africa continent seeking to achieve human rights protection in higher institutions.