5th August, 2017
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on Saturday met with Media Executives from 10 states to renew commitment in ensuring a boost in school enrolment and birth registration of children.
UNICEF Education Specialist, Azuka Menkiti, said at the opening of the National Enrolment Drive Planning Meeting in Kaduna, that Nigeria had 10.5 million out of school children, the highest in the world.
Menkiti added that more girls were out of school than boys, particularly in the northern states, which was in contrast with southern part of the country where boys were dropping out of school.
She identified socio-cultural norms and practices, teacher quantity and quality, infrastructure and governance, as factors making schools unattractive to parents and children.
She also said that 70 per cent of children in Nigeria were not registered and provided birth certificates, saying the development had denied children, the required legal documents and access to other services that required the presentation of birth as condition.
“Every year, since 2012, UNICEF and state partners organise enrolment drive activities in the five Girls Education Focused states; Bauchi, Niger, Katsina, Sokoto and Zamfara, to bring additional one million girls to school.
“The success of the campaign led to the development of National Enrolment Drive Framework to address the menace of out of school children in Nigeria, “she said.
The education specialist explained that the meeting was designed to build collective responsibility for reaching out to out-of-school children in Nigeria, and to agree on possible partnership, support, roles and responsibilities.
She expressed optimism that with collective action, more children would be enrolled in schools.
“This could be achieved if our legislators ensure that 100 children are enrolled in school in their various constituencies; traditional rulers sensitize their subjects and religious leaders change negative perspective on education.
“We will equally record significant improvement in school enrolment if the media creates the needed awareness and build momentum for collective responsibility of every stakeholder,” she said.
On birth registration, Sharon Oladiji, Child Protection Specialist, UNICEF Abuja, said that the highest number of birth in Africa took place in Nigeria, adding that between now and the year 2030, about 136 million babies would be born in the country.
According to her, awareness campaign on the significance of birth registration is very crucial in ensuring that every unregistered child is registered to prepare grounds for the unborn.
“Birth certificate is a critical document for the Nigerian child and all stakeholders must support ongoing effort to get all children registered.
“The media has been playing a key role in this regard. For example, in 2016, Media Executives were mobilized to support massive birth registration in Kebbi and Adamawa states.
“The effort paid off with over one million children registered in both states; let’s do that again this year because there is still room to do more,” she said.
The meeting was organized by Federal Ministry of Education and the Universal Basic Education Commission, in collaboration with UNICEF.
The Media Executives that attended the meeting were drawn from Adamawa, Bauchi, Katsina, Niger, Zamfara, Sokoto, Yobe, Borno, Kebbi and Ebonyi states.