 Bullying. Responsibility of the parent and the school. Bullying is the use of force, coercion, harmful teasing, threats, and abuse that is always dominated on the individual. There are many warning signs that are indicated that someone is affected by bullying, either being bullied or bullies themselves. Recognizing the warning signs is an important first step in taking action against bullying. Not all children who are bullied or who are being bullied ask for help. A child has a right to be educated in a clean, safe environment without any obstacles that are going to be obstructive to learning. The school has a duty of care to provide it and the parents have a duty of care to pay for the services that the school is actually rendering. First, let's examine what makes bullying such a trend? Why are children indulging in it? Most students that actually enjoy bullying are actually a product of a bullying environment. It is important to understand that your environment makes 90 percent of your character and when you're subjected to bullying in that environment the tendency is that you continue in another environment. Those are just statistics, it doesn't mean it actually applies in all cases. There are certain things that parents don't consider as bullying and they consider it as their child standing up for their rights. So we have to look at critically what do we understand by bullying in each and every in each and every environment as well as in each culture. What is the way forward? It should be no tolerance, no tolerance, zero tolerance, no child should be subjected to bullying and we really do need to stand up and make sure that that is the case. Where is the research that there's been bullying, especially in Nigerian schools? We hardly have many cases because most parents or most children don't come out and say they're being bullied because they're still in the target environment. What does the constitution have? What does the constitution say? And it is clear that the constitution says that a child has the right to be educated and that education should be quality education. But however our public schools and federal schools have let us down. We are seeking respite in private schools. The act of collective school fees, acceptance fees and all ridiculous penalties have driven the issue of no accountability of private schools to the government. We can't do it alone definitely but we can do it together and we don't have to wait for another child to die and we don't have to wait to know that these children have the rights under our constitution. In my opinion we have let these children down as citizens of Nigeria but more so the government has also let them down. We can look at the notable case of the Chibok girls. What's happened we don't know but Sylvester now has come and this is a situation we find ourselves. Most schools have not been monitored since inception and in every state there is a department of quality and assurance who are supposed to monitor schools but most of them have not had that inspection since they had inaugurated their schools years ago. What are we saying now the monitoring in the ministry they've all become elephants in the room. I think very interesting comments I mean by Helen but I really think that one of the things I was going on here is a case of when you know you build high walls and fences to protect yourself against intruders and that you don't care about what is the actual cost and eventually your walls get climbed upon by those people outside you. I remember many years ago while doing a lot of advocacy around issues in Lagos state and I went to the office of the then attorney general and he said one thing said that he's very very worried. This was almost about the what's going to happen in Lagos over the next couple of years and because those things are so what is happening here which is what Helen is pointing out we have had all those schools we've all left the public school system because we felt they were not good enough but they did it many times I mean Carol cries from different angles for all of us to actually put an eye and ask questions as to what exactly is going on in there who's advocating for teaching training who's pushing for standards and so now the private schools that we all ran to and paid through our nostrils and felt that they were good and now letting us down so maybe really you know as Helen's advocates to say responsibility of parents and schools be your parents who have children in schools responsibility of adults to say we want the education system to actually be looked into we want to call on the ministry of education across all the states what are the standards what are the monitoring boards and like when Helen said about qm evaluation monitoring evaluation I think that I mean I may have a slight I don't know because I have worked in the education space for a bit and interestingly yes it does go all after well but they do come to the schools and one of the challenges that school owners have is that of course when they finally come there's a lot of their other requests that come into play and so you literally can't do the Nigerian and go and get away with some things exactly which which is which is what I was going to say corrupt again yeah that someone needs to monitor the monitor that's unfortunately the monitor the monitor because if you think you don't think it can cause direct debt but indirectly because somebody is going to actually think you are right the truth is like I said there are laws in place there are rules if you look at the system there's actually a system in place there who is enforcing it and then who is making sure that the enforcer is enforcing it so it's levels and levels of irresponsibility and in discipline and corruption that is just we need to enforce the enforcer to enforce the yeah absolutely yeah so so what what is what is our solution we know we have to regulate we know we have to monitor how like on me I'm ready with placard to start I don't know how much that is going to do no you see I start holding accountable so we need first of all there's need to there's the need for research what is supposed to obtain whose responsibility for what then there's not need to ask a where does the box stop and then when you now start going okay say one look you know that in any system in a society you have the three tiers of government you have the media you have civil society and the realities are those last two arms the informal arms of government the media and civil society are fairly society because at the end of the day you need galvanized organized movement if they're going to have chaos they're going to have riots and then the government comes back again to say we're keeping the peace so you're going to have to say okay so this is where it is what are the things that they're supposed to enforce and how do we ensure that this goes on because it has to happen we have to start making demands we've said that we have to start demanding for accountability right I believe in process as well one is yours I mean so that's how it starts it starts as an echo if you know it is a resounding you know explosion that they can't stop but be accountable so I kind of see it three ways and I think Helen you you kind of touched on these things one is the actual physical movement right two is that you actually have to come up with sincere regulation yes something that actually works and I was on a podcast with our fellow advocate Kunle and Helen a couple of days ago and Kunle made a great point in that there are laws that exist but they're so vague you know to uphold the rights of a child what does that mean what are the human rights of it it's so vague that it's just left to a wide amount of interpretation so we also need the the lawmakers to go back and actually make laws that are enforceable before you can even enforce very clear yes Helen would you want to give a last word before yeah um my thoughts really is the fact that um how do I put this that it doesn't sound funny we really at this point really need to have a physical action you know we've been having actions against government this government didn't do that nobody has really come out and stood the ground for education we need to come out at least maybe go to the governor in a group and let him know that we are tired of our children when I was in school if you were in a private school that means that you are so dull that you could not pass any federal school that was where we were now private schools whether you pass or you don't you're in there we need to go back we really need to go back and I my personal opinion is that let us for the first time ever come together march for education government office or minister of education if not for anything for the children who have died for the children who have died and go there and let them know our hearts and then we leave it like that and then we continue on the corner and pushing like we're doing at it is now absolutely absolutely a good way forward so we have Elijah up and it's a very very interesting topic so please stay with us after the break