Millennium Development Goals and 2015. A mirage?

Millennium Development Goals and 2015. A mirage?

Target 2.A:
Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international development goals that all 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve by the year 2015. They include eradicating extreme poverty, reducing child mortality rates, fighting disease epidemics such as AIDS, and developing a global partnership for development. Number 2 target is eradication of illiteracy at least to primary school level by 2015.

The sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia are the most laggards in this, but Asia has leap frogged Africa to that effect. In Nigeria the Northern part is the most behind in terms of the child literacy campaign. In Anambra state, Anambra West is like the Northern Nigeria with very low level of primary school enrollees and those who finish up to secondary level reduce more as they go up the ladder . The few that makes it to the primary school later reduces into half owing to demand at the farms and “apprentices” in Lagos, Onitsha etc. all for the quest of money.

The problem is as a result of many factors ranging from poverty and the need to survive by families-thereby stopping the children from continuing their education; as well as the neglect by the government. The UBE-Universal Basic Education scheme does not benefit the Anamites neither does the ETF-Education Tax Fund. Classroom blocks are built without any action to encourage students to go to school. The teachers are also not helping matters. They have all become local rich farmers as they all own huge hectares of land and send these children to the farm instead of bringing them from the farm to the school.

Governor Peter Obi had boasted that he is one of the few governments in black Africa that promised to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by year 2015. According to him, it is was from MDGs vision that he designed the Anambra Integrated Development Strategy (ANIDS) as a vehicle towards achieving the goals.He explained that ANIDS, enables the government to work on all sectors simultaneously. He also said that as part of the efforts to better the education sector for the benefit of the children of the state, he would, give money to all the secondary schools in the state for the building of libraries.

‘He also said that the state secondary schools were connected to the internet, with new brand buses, rehabilitated laboratories and many more, as part of efforts to give future to the children of the state.’

Did the schools in Anambra west receive these money for the Libraries and did they all get the internet as claimed. If the answers were no, then we need to find out why? Who was given the contract for Anambra west? Who is sitting on the children of Anam’s future? Are we not part of the MDG’s targets?

Ferdinand Ofozor

Madonna University

Elele Campus