Marking of the 2019 Global Campaign for Education’s Global Action Week for Education 

Marking of the 2019 Global Campaign for Education’s Global Action Week for Education

The last week of April every year is always set aside by the Global Campaign for Education (GCE) for marking the Global Action Week for Education (GAWE) with relevant activities. This year’s edition is scheduled to take place between April 24 and May 1, 2019. The theme for this year’s celebration is “My Education, My Right(s)” and the focus is on making the right to an inclusive, equitable, quality, free public education a reality. 

By encompassing the full realization of the SDG4 agenda, this annual week of action calls attention of the relevant stakeholders in education to the urgent need to invest in the future of the 260+ million out-ofschool children around the world.

As we mark this year’s edition of GAWE, the Civil Society Action Coalition on Education For All (CSACEFA) Oyo State Chapter, a coalition of NGOs working in the thematic area of Education in Oyo State wishes to draw the attention of relevant stakeholders and policymakers in Education in Oyo State to the following points that will help in the delivery of quality public education and achievement of SDG4:

• According to a report by SatiSense, a data consulting firm, Oyo State currently has the highest number of out-of-school children in the South-West Nigeria. The State has 463,280 out-of-school children. All stakeholders should intensify their efforts in reversing this negative data. 

• There should be credible roadmaps for implementation of the full SDG4 agenda – including the targets for youth and adults that are being widely overlooked and the importance of ensuring no child is left behind (e.g. children with disabilities, minorities etc.).

• There should be clear mechanisms for accountability and transparency to citizens, and the active participation of civil society in policy making and in monitoring the progress and evaluating the impacts of education projects. There should be spaces at all levels for the participation of CSO in education policy formulation, development and implementation.

• There should be full financing of genuinely free and qualitative basic education by the government at all levels. A Federal High Court Judgment of March 12, 2017 confirmed the constitutional provision for this. The judge ruled that the federal and state governments have constitutional duties to provide adequate fund for such education. He said failure by any government to fund free primary and junior secondary (Basic) education will constitute breach of the constitution.