The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has urged Nigerian government to invest in education for a better future, noting that 75 percent of Nigerian children between 7 and 14-year-old cannot read a simple sentence or solve a basic mathematics problem.
UNICEF Nigeria Representative, Ms Cristian Munduate, who made the call in a statement released on Tuesday January 24, 2023 to mark the International Day of Education, with the theme “Invest in People Prioritise Education”, said Nigeria needs to invest more in children education especially the first three years to ensure a more literate children and youth, which will translate to a more literate future, adding that UNICEF and other partners will continue to support the federal and state governments to achieve their aims in improving the life of the Nigerian child.
According to Munduate, “On this International Day of Education, I join the global call to “invest in people, prioritise education” and urge Nigeria to deliver on the commitments made by President Muhammadu Buhari at the UN Secretary General’s Transforming Education Summit in September 2022 to end the global learning crisis.
“In Nigeria, 75 per cent of children aged 7 to 14 years cannot read a simple sentence or solve a basic math problem. For children to be able to read to learn, they must be able to learn to read in the first three years of schooling. I commit UNICEF’s support to the government of Nigeria’s commitment to transform education and to prevent the loss of hard-fought gains in getting children into school, particularly poor, rural children and girls and ensuring that they remain in school, complete their education and achieve their full potential.
“UNICEF, together with partners, will continue to support federal and state governments to: reduce the number of out-of-school children by providing safe, secure and violence free learning environments both in formal and non-formal settings, engaging communities on the importance of education and providing cash transfers to households and to schools.
“Improve learning outcomes by expanding access to quality early childhood education, scaling foundational literacy and numeracy programmes, and offering digital skills and life and employability skills to adolescents to enable the school to work transition.
“Increase domestic spending on education to meet the 20% global benchmark by 2030 and to address the infrastructure and teaching backlog that are affecting all children’s access to inclusive and quality education.
“As Nigeria’s presidential elections draw near, on behalf of UNICEF and the children in Nigeria, I call on all presidential candidates to include investments in education as a top priority in their manifestos.”
