Frontline Fighters for Citizen’s Interest (FFCI), a human rights defense organization, through this communique would like to inform the Anglophone Community that schools have effectively resumed in the Northwest and Southwest Regions and therefore no child should still be staying at home.

FFCI hierarchy has been reliably informed that no new pupils and students shall be admitted in schools in the two regions as from January 1, 2018. Accordingly, any parent who does not enroll his or her child in a school now is doing so at the child’s detriment as schools shall not be admitting new pupils and students as from January next year.

FFCI would like to urge the state to honour the right to education as articulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

Article 28

1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall, in particular:

(a) Make primary education compulsory and available free to all;

(b) Encourage the development of different forms of secondary education, including general and vocational education, make them available and accessible to every child, and take appropriate measures such as the introduction of free education and offering financial assistance in case of need;

(c) Make higher education accessible to all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate means;

(d) Make educational and vocational information and guidance available and accessible to all children;

(e) Take measures to encourage regular attendance at schools and the reduction of drop-out rates.

2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that school discipline is administered in a manner consistent with the child's human dignity and in conformity with the present Convention.

3. States Parties shall promote and encourage international cooperation in matters relating to education, in particular with a view to contributing to the elimination of ignorance and illiteracy throughout the world and facilitating access to scientific and technical knowledge and modern teaching methods. In this regard, particular account shall be taken of the needs of developing countries.

We use this medium to congratulate parents who have sent their children to school and call on others whose children are still staying at home to send them to school as soon as possible. Remember, the education of your child has no price and the best legacy you can leave to your child is education.