Stakeholders advocate inclusion of anti-trafficking into education curriculum

Stakeholders advocate inclusion of anti-trafficking into education curriculum

Stakeholders have called for the inclusion of anti-trafficking into colleges of education curriculum in Nigeria to combat the activities of human trafficking in the country.

The Voice Media Trust (VMT NEWS) reports that those who made the call said that the inclusion of anti-trafficking into the higher institutions curriculum would help expose the ills of human trafficking and protect young undergraduates  from falling prey to traffickers.

The stakeholders made the call at a One-Day Step-Down Training of Trainers on Anti-Human Trafficking for no fewer than 70 lecturers of Colleges of Education in Asaba, Delta.

Speaking, Mrs Ijeoma David-Ukoko,  Delta State Project Officer, Schools Anti-Trafficking Education and Advocacy Project (STEAP),  said it would be a win win for all if anti-trafficking was infused into colleges of education curriculum in the country.

She said that the training which was organised by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) in partnership with the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), was aimed at achieving the objectives of STEAP project in the state.

She noted that the STEAP project was been facilitated in partnership with the Civil Society Organisation – “Hope Health Organisation (HHO)”, the implementor in the  community levels across the state to achieve result.

David- Ukoko, said that the training, funded by the Government of the Netherlands was part of the STEAP project aimed at equipping the lecturers with requisite knowledge about human trafficking and to enable them cascade same to their students.

She noted that similar training had been carried out at Enugu state for lecturers of colleges of education in 2024 which has to be step-down in Delta for effective coverage, adding that the STEAP project, a four-year project would end in the next two years.

According to her, the whole idea is to enable the school community buy into the project and raise discussion and build it into school curriculum for proper education of the students, communities  thereby  equipping them with the antics of the traffickers.

“This is a step-down training of training the trainer ‘lecturers’, so that they can better design ways and means of integrating anti-trafficking into the school curriculum.”

She said that the relevant groups, authorities and the schools vanguard coordinators have been sensitised, adding that training the teachers would make the process better.

“So, we are here to train and sensitise them so that in turn, they will transmit this information acquired and integrate it into the school curriculum in order to sustain the project beyond STEAP/ICMPD project.

“In Delta, we have two clusters, we have done the Warri Cluster some weeks ago for three colleges of education, known as Cluster A.

“This is Cluster B, for colleges of education in Asaba and environs, so, we have over 70 participants here today, these are lecturers drawn from three colleges of education and from different departments including their provosts are here for the training.

“This training engaged the Federal, State and private colleges of education,” David- Ukoko said.

She said that the success of the project would be a win win for both the national and international communities, adding that the interest of the funding country was to ensure sanity for humanity and to end inhuman treatment and trafficking in persons.

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On his part, Mr Sam Offiah, the Zonal Commander, NAPTIP Benin Zonal Command, lauded the project for empowering the lecturers with requisite knowledge to fight against human trafficking in the schools community.

He noted that NAPTIP and ICMPD partnership was to advance the STEAP project beyond primary and secondary schools and to help deepen the fight by factoring the project into higher institutions’ curriculum.

“This training will help improve the capacity of the lecturers to enable them cascade the knowledge gained in their schools and communities and to empower the students to become well informed about the activities of human trafficking.

“There is an upscale for those in the secondary schools to leave and gain admission into higher schools, then the lecturers are already informed and waiting to receive them and they will not be taking unawares.

“Also, the infusion of human trafficking in the curriculum of colleges of education will go a long way to help the students because the lecturers will go back and impact this knowledge on their students.

“So, it is a win win approach for us, the teachers, students and the entire community and the country at large.” Offiah said.

Offiah said though there were challenges and to effectively address the issues of human trafficking in Nigeria, the government must have the political will to fight the scourge.

According to Offiah, we need the political will and societal change, this is because justice delayed is justice denied.

“The government should look inward and see how they would restructure the criminal justice regime of our country. This will help us in combating the issues of human trafficking and other related offences”.

Offiah noted that the whistleblower and reward system to check the menace of human trafficking  had been there with the slogan “if you see something, say something’ and  the import of this is  to save our children from the traffickers”.

Also speaking, Mrs Ijeoma Nwanze, Secretary, Delta State Taskforce Against  Human Trafficking and Irregular Migration, said that the training was part of the series of events in actualising the STEAP project in Delta.

“We are glad that we are engaging beyond the secondary schools to the higher institutions; engaging lecturers in colleges of education in Delta state.

“This is the second cluster, the idea is to ensure that human trafficking is heard even at the higher institutions and infused into the curriculum because knowledge is power.

“So, our children who are within this bracket of being trafficked, when they learn about the traffickers, they will be less prone to being victims. So, this workshop is of great imapact to us as a state and to the nation at large,” Nwanze said.

NAN also reports that participants, who spoke during an interview, lauded NAPTIP and ICMPD for the training while assuring that they would explore the knowledge to drive the STEAP project in the state.

The resources persons exposed the participants to the elements, methods and forms of trafficking in persons (TIP), the guidelines for implementation of TIP content in NCE minimum standards and the migration and counter trafficking measures; national and international among other topics.