UNICEF tasks presidential candidates on investment in education

As Nigeria’s presidential elections draw near, all the presidential candidates have been urged to include investments in education as a top priority in their manifestos.

The call was contained in a statement by Ms Cristian Munduate, UNICEF Nigeria Representative on the International Day of Education.

The call was made on behalf of UNICEF and the children in Nigeria, stating, “I call on all presidential candidates to include investments in education as a top priority in their manifestos.”

She added that “On this International Day of Education, I join the global call to “invest in people, prioritize education”, and urge Nigeria to deliver on the commitments made by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari at the UN Secretary General’s Transforming Education Summit in September 2022 to end the global learning crisis.”

The statement contained that, “In Nigeria, 75 per cent of children aged 7 to 14 years cannot read a simple sentence or solve a basic math problem stressing that, For children to be able to read to learn, they must be able to learn to read in the first three years of schooling.”

Mundate added that “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 to their full potential.”

According to her, 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.

It also called for improved 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 address the infrastructure and teaching backlog that are affecting all children’s access to inclusive and quality education.

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