From BALA B. BITRUS, Minna
THE United Nations Children’s
Educational Fund, (UNICEF) has tasked governments in the 19 northern
states to give priority to the pursuit of the girl-child education
as a strategy to stamp out illiteracy and its consequences.
To highlight the problem, the Fund is to convene a two-day summit
next month for the advancement of the fortunes of the girl-child
education in the region as part of its programme of action and
contributions on education to the 19 northern states of the
country.
The summit scheduled to take place in Kaduna, is to be jointly
sponsored by the Fund and the 19 states, and would be the first of
its kind. The summit is to chart the way forward in the realisation
of the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on
education.
The outgoing Assistant Country Representative of UNICEF, Mrs. Mehara
Khatun said in Minna , Niger State, yesterday that the summit is
part of the Fund’s concern for the expansion of the fortunes of the
dwindled girl-child education programme in the region.
Mrs. Khatun expressed the readiness of UNICEF to partner with the
states in realising the objectives of the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs). She said UNICEF would help the states to ensure that
education is given the proper priority in the scheme of things.
Khatun was at the Government House, Minna on a farewell visit to
Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu where she expressed profound
gratitude to the governor for his support to UNICEF since his
assumption of office.
She noted that through the Fund’s programme of action, tagged
‘‘Essential Learning Package’’, the scope and fortunes of the
girl-child education would be broaden, adding that the Fund would
spearhead the campaigns for governments to place on the front
burners the actualisation of the girl-child education programme.
Mrs. Khatun who has been posted to Khartoum in Sudan, has worked in
Nigeria for four and half years.
Governor Aliyu while receiving the outgoing UNICEF official pledged
the commitment of the state government to girl-child education with
vigour.
He noted that though the challenges in funding education were
enormous, the state was well prepared to reverse the dwindling
fortunes of education in the state, assuring that the state would
henceforth promptly pay up its counterpart funds to such donor
agencies and multinational organisations like UNICEF that is ready
to assist the states.
