Kano, Jan. 24, 2025
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has called on Nigeria to increase appropriation, release and spending on education, as it only spends 1.2 per cent of its GDP on education.
The Chief of UNICEF Kano Field Office, Mr Rahma Farrah made the call on Friday, at a Press briefing to commemorate the 2025 International Day for Education.
According to UNICEF Chief, the budgetary appropriations to education sector across Kano, Jigawa and katsina, have not been matched with actual release and spending of appropriated fund.
He said that the rate of out of school children in the Northwest states is alarming, in addition to poor learning outcomes for the fortunate ones to be enrolled in basic schools.
“There are currently about 10.2 million children at the primary level are out of school in Nigeria, 16 per cent of them are from Kano, Jigawa and Katsina states, according to MICS 2021.
“A total of 337,861 Out of school children are in Jigawa. Tests conducted by the Federal Ministry of Education in 2022, found that Foundational Learning rates were low.
“It revealed that only 2% of primary school learners in Jigawa have foundational reading skills while less than 1% have numeracy skills.
“The figures are lower than the national averages of 26% per cent for Reading proficiency and 25% for Numeracy respectively,” Farrah said.
UNICEF therefore highlighted the interventions it has provided to education sector in Northwestern states.
In Jigawa, UNICEF is supporting the state to provide climate resilient learning environment to mitigate the impact of climate change on learning.
It has engaged 350 in Jigawa, to act on the Climate Change, resulting in the planting of 200 trees in many parts of the state.
To expand access to education for children, UNICEF supported Cash transfers to improve access to education for vulnerable families.
Farrah added that UNICEF has been partnering with communities, traditional leaders and decision makers on enrollment drives to improve access to education.
“We have partnered with the Jigawa State House of Assembly led by the Speaker, on school enrolment campaigns resulting in the enrollment of hundreds of children in school.
“We provided school grants to improve access to quality inclusive education, while we supported the Integrated Quranic Schools with curriculum and training of 290 Qur’anic school proprietors in Kano and Jigawa states,”He said.
United Nations General Assembly in December 2018, declared January 24 as the International Day of Education, with the day first celebrated in 2019.
Since then, it has served as an advocacy moment for education, providing a platform for a global call to action, emphasizing education’s role in fostering a well-informed, inclusive, and peaceful society.
The 2025 theme of the day is AI and Education: Preserving Human Agency in a World of Automation.
By Aisha Ahmed
