United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said efforts to accelerate access to quality education through its Nigeria Learning Passport initiative is fast yielding significant results with 1.4 million enrollees.
Despite frantic efforts by the Federal Government and partners to reduce out-of-school children in Northern Nigeria, UNICEF revealed that Kano came tops with 900,000 vulnerable children roaming the streets.
Country Representative of UNICEF, Cristian Munduate, gave the account yesterday, while addressing journalists in Kano on the activities of UNICEF on health, education and nutrition in the region.
Munduate revealed that the Learning Passport, an online education platform designed for basic and secondary levels, was meant to create access to quality education, essentially to less privileged children.
He explained that the collaborative efforts to check the rising level of out-of-school children has brought about 1.5 million children back to the classroom in the North in two years.
The UNICEF chief, who worried over the case of Kano, believed the state government could accelerate the ugly trend to zero level in three years, with commitment and good will.
While suggesting possible solutions to the challenges, Munduate tasked Northern leaders to rather de-emphasise challenges and seek good solutions.
As part of the solution to the health challenge, the UNICEF chief canvassed establishment of functional Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) to provide 24 hours service, including immunisation service, with employment of qualified midwives across the 484 wards of the state.
She equally canvassed political will for implementation of health and education policies. While calling for increased budget for the sector, she urged the government to ensure implementation and monitoring of the resources for expected results.
“UNICEF is collaborating with the federal and state governments to expand and accelerate access to education. The Nigeria Learning Passport captured 500,000 children in 2022. The programme is integrated and we have captured 1.4 million in 2023.
“The programme is basically meant to support and provide a platform for the majority of students, who are out of school, free access to a quality learning system and quality teaching model for the teacher. We hope to increase the access in the near future, “ she said.
