Erelu Bisi Fayemi, the wife of Ekiti State Governor, campaigned for the inclusion of sex education in school curriculum on Tuesday.

She mentioned this at Ado-Ekiti during the launch of the State Ministry of Education’s Gender-Based Violence Policy Document and the inauguration of Anti-Gender-Based Violence in Schools.

The event with theme : ” 30 years after adoption of the Charter: accelerate the implementation of agenda 2040 for an Africa fit for Children” was in commemoration of the 2021 Africa Child day.

Mrs Fayemi, who urged the government and other education stakeholders to pay close attention to the school curriculum, stated that sexual education in primary and secondary schools for specific age groups would prevent violence and promote gender equality.

According to the Governor’s Wife, the new education policy requires all parents to submit names and information on persons who pick up their children from school.

Erelu Fayemi reaffirmed that children have the right to be protected from all forms of gender violence, including in their school lives, in her keynote address titled Prevention of Gender-Based Violence in Schools.

She stated that education is critical in changing the root causes of violence, as well as being an important mechanism for young people’s social, emotional, and psychological development.

“We are still training guns on our children; it might not be AK47 but guns of poverty, emotional and sexual harassment. When we are passionate about the health of our children, we will protect the guns on them. It is to make our schools safe for them,” The Governor’s Wife added.

While delivering a lecture at the occasion, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Olawale Fapohunda, maintained that the Governor had directed the Ministry of Justice to propose a law on child protection rights and remove minors from abused environments.

He urged organized teaching associations to stop taking a silent stance on rape cases involving their members and to adapt their methods for dealing with rape cases among their staffs.

Fapohunda revealed that the Ministry of Justice had acquired a protective order for the girl in an ongoing rape case that had been widely publicized on social media. “The girl will be in the custody of the Government.”, he said.

He stated that police will investigate everyone engaged and named in the case, including the victim’s mother, brother and the bar mentioned.

In his lecture titled reversing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children, the Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Oyebanji Filani stated preparing for the post-Covid period must continue now, adding the pandemic is not the end of its kind.

Dr Filani urged the students to focus on their goals and believe in their dreams.

Source: The Vanguard.