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EDUCATION

Last Updated Thursday, October 18, 2007

 

UNICEF tasks North on girl-child education


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.
 


©2005 New Nigerian Newspapers Limited.