By Tare Youdeowei

The frequency with which on-campus violence and shootings take place is alarming, in Nigerian varsities as cult killings and foreign universities as shootings, stabbings alike. Dylan Roof planned to kill students in Charleston University before changing his mind to attack a church, the massacres in Virginia Tech in 2007, Northern Illinois University Shooting in 2008 to mention a few, are the cases of on – campus killings that Professor Peter Okebukola,past Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC) and current Pro-Chancellor of Crawford University, addressed in his speech Higher Education and Africa’s Future:

Doing What is Right which he gave at the 10th Convocation Distinguished Lecture of Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, where he provided an array of propositions on safety against extremist individuals and groups on campuses in Nigeria and other countries of the world.   Excerpts…….                                                                                                                                                    

Prof. Peter Okebukola

Safety in schools has become a subject of global concern. It is a small animal in the education menagerie with a loud roar! No country is exempted as narratives of practices and actions which harm members of the schooling community including students, teachers and administrator have rented the airwaves over the last 10 years, at least. Safety in schools is a human security issue.

There are at least three compelling reasons for asserting a focus on safe schools. Without safe schools, our dream of harnessing the power of education for achieving goals in health, food, employment, environmental, energy security, among a miscellany of other subsets of human security will come to naught. Without safe schools, Education for All will remain a pipedream, so also attainment of post-2015 global development goals.  Without safe schools, quality education yearned by all countries of the world will be hindered. The terminal point of the logic is: no safe schools, no future for the world.

How can schools be made safe?

We offer no simple solution to the complex problem of unsafe schools which is rooted in ideological, policy and other contextual factors. The obnoxious and warped ideologies of jihadist groups which abhor schooling, especially of girls and women cannot be demolished by a few trite statements of condemnation. The pervasive use of the Internet has opened a new vista of cyber-bullying by school mates which has led to the death of many youngsters. We can however suggest minimum standards for safe schools to which we implore all African governments and others outside the region, as well as proprietors of schools, to uphold.

Minimum standards for physical and psychological safety are of concern here. Physical safety standards will include at least seven elements. These are physical screening of the perimeter of the school against intruders with installed and functioning CCTV coverage; all areas within and immediately outside the school are designed with safety in mind; access into the school is controlled and visitors are monitored.