Nigeria Faces Learning Crisis – UNICEF Says

BY TEMI OHAKWE IN KANO – Nigeria presently faces a a severe learning poverty in which 70 percent of its 10year olds in basic schools are not learning.

UNICEF Chief of Field office in Kano, Rahama Rohood Mohd Farah, announced the worrisome issue in Kano at a Two-Day media dialogue organised for Journalists on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as Child Rights.

UNICEF therefore called for increase in the funding of the education sector in the country, especially allocation of adequate resources to pre-primary and primary level of education.

Rohood, who was represented by Elhadji Issakha Diop, decried the existing figure of 10.5m Out Of School children in Nigeria, stressing that with the additional 70 percent who do not have literacy and numeracy skills, there is need for investment in improving teachers’ quality across the country.

While acknowledging that progress is currently being made, he however stressed that a lot more still needs to be done to scale-up Foundational Literacy and Numeracy in Nigeria.

To address this challenge, the UNICEF Chief noted that achieving basic foundational skills at the level of learning cannot be overemphasized, adding that already, UNICEF is supporting the Government of Nigeria to improve Foundational Literacy and Numeracy through Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) and Reading and Numeracy Activities (RANA).

According to him; “Education is a fundamental human right, which is well-articulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which guides the work of UNICEF, and other legal instruments, including the Nigerian Constitution”.

He therefore tasked the Nigerian media to deploy its channels of communication to raise awareness on the learning crisis in Nigeria.

Speaking on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as Child Rights, Dr. Chidi Ezinwa of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology, said that its achievement will remain a mirage unless and until the rights of the children are fulfilled.

Ezinwa noted that a pure case of denial of the right of a child revealed that several rights are taken away from the children, adding that the SDGs presents crucial opportunities to push for the rights of the child.

He further said that promoting the rights of children will aid the achievement of the SDGs, stressing that Child Rights are entitlements of the child hence no right is more important than the other.

He also said; “Denial of one Child’s Right leads to the denial of other rights, we must admit that the quality of children we have today determines the quality of future we have”.

Also speaking, the UNICEF Communication Specialist, Dr Geoffrey Njoku, said the objectives of the media dialogue is to raise awareness on the need to revamp the system, specifically on the need to change curriculum at the basic education level as well as the need to train teachers at the same level.