For children to be able to read to learn, they must be able to learn to read in the first three years of schooling.
The UNICEF Nigeria Representative, Ms Cristian Munduate, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to deliver on the commitments made at the UN Secretary-General’s Transforming Education Summit in September 2022, to end the global learning crisis.
Munduate made the call in a statement on Tuesday to mark the International Day of Education, themed: “invest in people, prioritize education”.
She said: “In Nigeria, 75% 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.”
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.
Additionally, she said UNICEF and its partners will continue to support the 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 (https://nigeria.learningpassport.org/), 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.
Munduate concluded by all the presidential candidates in the forthcoming elections to include investments in education as a top priority in their manifestos.
