THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN

INTRODUCTION

In the last unit, you learnt the contribution of six different thinkers and educational reformers to the theory and practice of childhood education since the 17th century. In this unit, you are going to learn about the rights of the child as recognized by the United Nations and the Nigerian laws. From these rights of the child, you will be able to identify the different ways through which the interest and needs of the child are being recognized and protected in Nigeria. You will also be able to see the ways some of the rights of children are being violated in Nigeria.

 OBJECTIVES

After studying this unit you should be able to:

•  enumerate some of the educational and civil rights of the Nigerian child. 
• explain how the rights of the child are being implemented in Nigeria. 
• identify the ways the rights of children are being violated. 

 The United Nations Organization's Declarations on the Rights of the Child 

There are certain rights that have been agreed upon internationally for children. The essence of which is to accord a child the proper treatment s/he deserves anywhere in the world whatever be the race, religion or disability. The document that contains these rights is known as the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Many nations in the world signed into this document including our country Nigeria. We will now look at the rights one by one.

The Right to Special Care if Handicapped

In our discussion of the status of children in the ancient and medieval Europe, we mentioned how unwanted children were killed. That is, some children who were either found to be unhealthy, deformed or those who were weak were killed. You remember that even in a particular part of Nigeria, twins were also killed. We also discussed that as from the 17th century, things started to improve as far as the attitudes toward children were concerned. What started in the 17th century through the activities of some clergy men and humanitarian groups, have now become an international affair. 

In November 1959, the General Assembly of the United Nations Organization (UNO) adopted some declarations on the rights of children. Nigeria endorsed the declarations in 1990 (Amafah, et al.1990). One of the declarations is the right of the child to special care if handicapped. What this means is that no child should be left uncared for as a result of his or her deformity. As you must be aware, nobody likes to have a blind, deaf, dumb, mentally retarded or even a lame child. This may be due to the problem which such children bring to their parents. Therefore, those who do not like to kill them as it was done in the past now hide them at home or allow them to go out and become beggars. Apart from this, even other people in the society also looked down on persons with deformity, that is, they were stigmatized and denied things that could make life bearable to them. It is in an attempt to stop these bad attitudes towards the physically or mentally challenged children that the UN has declared that the physically or mentally challenged has the right to be properly taken care of like the normal children.


So in all members’ nations of the UN, efforts are being made in various ways to take good care of such children. Here in Nigerian, there are many homes, school or centres for the various categories of handicapped children. Have you heard of any such homes? At these centres, such children are taught to read and write by their specially trained teachers.

In addition, to being able to read and write, some of them also had to further education at the secondary and post secondary levels. There are many blind boys and girls who are now university graduates as a result of this international interest in their welfare. There are some universities in Nigerian today with Department of Special Education, where teachers for physically or mentally challenged are specially trained. Can you mention some the universities with the department of special education? Are you aware also that there is a College of Education (special) which trains teachers for the physically or mentally challenged? Where is that college located in Nigeria? So also in some of the homes, the children are exposed to different vocational training so that they can be self-reliant instead of going about begging.

 The Right to Free Education

This is one of the UN declarations on the rights of the child. Do you still remember that one of the great thinkers and educational reformers we discussed in the last unit called for free education of children? Yes. Comenius who lived between (1592 and 1670 A.D) said education is the birth right of the child. In other words no child should be denied access to education for whatever reason.

The non- implementation of the right of the child to education as once suggested by Comenius in different parts of the world must have forced the UN to make the declaration. Many countries, of the world including Nigeria are now providing free primary education to all children of school age. In some countries, including Nigeria it is even an offence for parents not to send their children to school. This is to ensure that all children enjoy their right to be educated no matter their socio-economic background, sex or even their disabilities. In Nigeria, the free education formally enjoyed only by primary school pupils has been extended to the junior secondary school level under the new UBE program. Unfortunately however, many Nigerian children are still being denied their right to free education as a result of many reasons. Can you give some of the reasons?

 The Right to Develop his Abilities

As you must be aware, there are individual differences including abilities among children. However, right from the ancient times, some children have been denied their right to develop their special gifts and abilities. For example, in ancient Greek, only children who were found to be physically fit were considered good enough to live and receive special military training. Even in modern societies, many children who cannot gain much from formal education are usually regarded as useless.

Children are not given the necessary encouragement to be the best of whatever they are. Some class teachers were in the past fond of calling boys and girls who could not do well in mathematics and English Language as ‘the never do wells who should drop out of school’. We thank God that as a result of this UN declaration, there are now different levels of educational institutions and vocational training centres to cater for the different interest and abilities of children. You should be able to mention some people either in your town, state or country who did not attend or complete secondary school education but are successful in certain trades or crafts? There are many musician, footballers, boxers, carpenters etc. who are known all over the world to day but who were not good in class work in the past. So these rights of the children and many more which you can still find out on your own have gone a long way in protecting the rights, interest and needs of children all over the world.

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
Identify and explain how any three of the rights of children as declared by the UNO are being violated in Nigeria.

Your answer should include the following:
The right to special care if physically or mentally challenged is being violated in Nigeria by parents who still keep such children at home or ask them to beg in the street while some parents refuse to send their physically or mentally challenged children to special schools designed for such children.