THE United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) on Tuesday said that planning was key to quantifying the technical and financial support needed to address education sector challenges in Nigeria.

UNICEF Chief, Kaduna Field Office, Dr Zakari Adam, stated this at a high level advocacy meeting on education sector planning in Minna.

Adam noted that high rate of out of school children, low learning achievement and inadequate child friendly learning spaces in school 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 SDGs.

“SDGs 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

According to him, 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, Gov. Abubakar Bello of Niger, 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.

He added 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)

– Apr. 17, 2018 @ 18:36 GMT

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