The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says is collaborating with Nigeria and state governments to expand and accelerate access to good education.
To accelerate access to quality education through its Nigeria Learning Passport, it captured 500,000 children in 2022 and captured 1.4 million in 2023.
The Country Representative of UNICEF in Nigeria, Ms Cristian Munduate gave the account while addressing journalists in Kano State on the activities of UNICEF in health, education and nutrition in the region.
Munduate said; ”the programme is basically meant to support and provide platform for majority of students who are out of schools, a free access to quality learning system and quality teaching model for the teacher. We hope to increase the access in nearest future.”
Ms Munduate noted that Nigeria Learning Passport, an online education model platform designed for basic and secondary levels, was meant to create access to quality education, essentially to less privileged children who are out of school.
According to her, “the collaborative efforts to check the raising level of out-of-school children has brought about 1.5 million children back to class in Northern Nigeria in two years.”
The UNICEF chief concerns over the case of Kano out-of-school children believed the state government can accelerate the ugly trend to zero level in three years, with commitment and good will.
While suggesting possible solutions to the challenges of out-of-school children, poor health and malnutrition in Kano, Munduate urged Northern governments to rather de-emphasize challenges and adopt solutions to challenges.
As part of the solution to the health challenge, the UNICEF chief canvassed the establishment of a functional Primary Health Centre with the trust of providing 24 hours of service and immunisation services with the employment of qualified midwives across the 484 wards of the state.
Munduate called for political will of policies and implementation on health and education.
While calling for increased budgetary provisions to the sector, she urged the government to ensure implementation and monitory of the resources for expected result.
Mercy Chukwudiebere
