THE NEW WORLD OF LEARNING

I stumbled on this quote by the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon after the attack on a school in Peshawar, Pakistan that claimed the lives of 132 innocent children. With over 200 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria and several violent attacks on schools worldwide, the past year has indeed been a bleak year for children around the globe This made me realise how much I took the life I had as a child for granted. As a child, I went to school without fear of any sort. All I was worried about were tests, exams, being punished for coming late to school or being asked to kneel in front of the class for making it into the list of noise makers.

Now the story is different. Children in nearly all countries have bigger fears. Going to school in this era has become an act of bravery. Oh no, I am not only speaking of countries like Pakistan or Nigeria that are constantly being attacked by Jihadists. I speak also of countries like the United States of America where a child can come to school with a gun and decide to shoot his/her fellow school mates. Seems like no place is safe anymore. Sending your child to school these days is now a huge sacrifice of some sort. A RISK . Each morning parents send off their child(ren) to school, they are not guaranteed they won’t be blown up, kidnapped or shot to death by some maniacs. Remember the students that were killed by a suicide bomber at the school assembly in Potiskum, Yobe State? Why? Simply because the children had the courage to go to school. Now you understand why I say it is a big risk!

Going to school used to be fun. For me, it was a place I could escape from my house chores, play with other kids and learn.  Now I wonder if these children understand what fun really is. In Countries like Nigeria, the condition for learning isn’t great. Most of these children in school have to deal with broken seats or no seats at all, a ‘white’ blackboard that has seen no charcoal in decades, using one exercise book for all subjects (oh no, don’t talk to me about those children who are lucky to attend private schools!). These children have not only been robbed of their right to a decent education, but they have to learn to live with the fear that schools are death traps which they have no other choice but to attend.

All children in school all through 2014, especially those in attack prone areas, should be applauded for being brave enough to go to school and learn. It is bravery indeed because the mere thought of a likely attack by Boko haram or Taliban for example, is enough to suffocate every learning cell in their brains.

This issue is depressing in so many ways:

•  I am sad for all the innocent children that had to die for no just cause in 2014 alone;
• I am sad that the children of now will never experience the fun and excitement that comes with learning;
•  I am sad that children of now will always associate school with death;
• I am sad that most of these children will be scarred psychologically for life;
•  I am sad that I will have to teach my children to learn to look over their shoulders when the time comes;
• I am sad that my children will not have the same beautiful childhood of living without fear that I had;
• I am sad that their safety, not from natural causes death, but from needless attacks like the Peshawar attack will constantly be a prayer point for me.

Finally I am afraid that this vicious circle of violence won’t end and schools will never be “secure learning spaces” like Ban Ki Moon expects it to be.