The United Nations Children’s Funds (UNICEF) in collaboration with Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office in Nigeria has disclosed that despite the progress made so far, Nigeria may not likely to achieve the global agenda of universal inclusive and equitable quality basic education for all school-age children by 2030 if nothing is done to change the current poor public investment in the education sector.
While speaking at a media dialogue on girls’ education held in Katsina, a Communication Specialist at UNICEF field office, Muntaka Muntaka, noted that Students Learning Outcomes Assessment, which completed six cases study states by the independent evaluation in 2021 revealed that the people’s proficiency in literacy is higher in only Enugu State (603.4) against a benchmark of 500.
It was, however, lower in the remaining five states of Kano (488.77), Zamfara (443.38), Kwara (493.56), and the rest.
On the other hand, only two states have higher scores of pupils’ proficiency in numeracy, Enugu (599.46) and Kwara (565.28) against the benchmark of 500.
While other remaining states have lower pupil’s proficiency in numeracy- Kano (463.14), Zamfara (437.04) and Katsina (476.7).
The media dialogue emphasised that for Nigeria to address the challenge, the Government must demonstrate strong will, as well as create substantial innovative fiscal space.
Also, it called for policy reforms in order to strengthen educational planning and coordination among various actors at all levels.
The stakeholders at the event therefore called for a review of existing policies and laws, with the objective to establish a strong accountability framework among key actors at the Federal and State levels.
According to the UNICEF representative, policy action is critically needed to address and mitigate the dearth of financial data concerning basic education.
He said “Policy makers should give a clear policy direction and guidance on how the PTA levies will be applied in schools, so as not to constitute a serious barrier to school enrolment.”
