‘Promoting Workplace Safety Must Start from Educational Institutions’

Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University of Lagos, Prof. Ayodele Atsenuwa, has stated that if the society truly desires to lay the foundations for safety in the workplace, it must start from educational institutions, “which would design curriculum that engages the discourses of violence, including gender-based violence as well as educates the students.”

She also stated that there was need to ensure that the educational contexts are designed to offer acculturation into a new culture as against enculturation into a prevalent culture that should be discarded.

Atsenuwa, who disclosed this at the Africa Women on Board (AWB) ‘Safety in The Workplace Initiative Launch’ organised by AWB, expressed displeasure that the educational system, including the legal educational system (which should do better), is fostering a culture of violence.

The DVC also noted that there is extremely hierarchical structure of relations in legal education between lecturers and students, and in the legal profession (between senior and junior lawyers), “there is also culture of silence on sexuality and sexual relationships as well as stigma arising from sexual victimisation.”