Planning key to Nigeria’s education sector challenges – UNICEF

United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Tuesday said that planning was key to quantifying the technical and financial support needed to address challenges in Nigeria’s education sector. UNICEF chief, Kaduna fi eld office, Dr Zakari Adam, stated this at a high level advocacy meeting on education sector planning in Minna, Niger state.
Adam noted that high rate of out-ofschool children, low learning achievement and inadequate child-friendly learning spaces in schools were among the major problems in the country’s education sector. He maintained that the need to plan better for the education sector had been made more urgent by the emergence of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which show what education target countries need to make by 2030. “For Nigeria, the target is to ensure every eligible child is in school by addressing challenges of out-of-school children among others. “Planning is important in ensuring that these issues are addressed logically and strategically,” he said He said UNICEF will continue to provide support to states to develop and implement evidence based education sector plan in order to deliver quality results. In his remarks, state governor, Abubakar Bello reiterated the commitment of the state government to transform the education sector. Bello, who was represented by the commissioner for education, Hajiya Fatima Madugu, said the state would use the Medium Term Basic Education Strategic Plan as a budget framework, adding that this would ensure the achievement of an effective and efficient policy formulation in meeting the needs of the education sector in the state.
He said the meeting provided an opportunity to address issues and concerns that may impact the planning process of education. The meeting was aimed at engaging with decision makers on the commencement of the education sector planning process and obtaining their inputs in areas that must be incorporated in the plan. The event had stakeholders from Niger, Oyo, Kebbi, Borno, Yobe, Katsina, Zamfara, Adamawa, Ebonyi and Benue states as well as the FCT. NAN