UNICEF urges Bauchi to invest more in education sector

Rauf Oyewole, Bauchi

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Nigeria Country Representative, Cristian Munduate has urged the government of Bauchi State to increase its investment in education to allow more kids to have access to quality learning.

Munduate who spoke in Toro, Bauchi State on Monday when she inspected the intervention programmes of the UN Agency expressed worry over the state of Gyamzo Central Primary School, Toro where UNICEF distributed 21 tablets embedded with reading materials and to link up with Nigeria Learning Passport.

She said that Toro LGA has more than 138,000 children of primary school age while there are about 380 schools, “this gives an idea of how to do planning about it,”

Speaking further, the UNICEF boss asked rhetorically, “how many children are able to go to school? So we see that, here, we have children attending school, but there are some classrooms that are empty and they are entirely empty, because there is a lack of teachers. They are empty because the classrooms need a lot of investment, they are empty as well at times because of security issues.

“So in this case, we are making a very urgent, serious call, we’re making a call to the State authorities. First to come and visit the conditions of schools at the different LG levels. So they can see this situation of children and why they cannot be educated.”

Munduate explained that UNICEF is not out to take over others responsibilities but to complement and to support the efforts that have been put on ground. “And that is why it is important for the people to know. And for people to ask the government to allocate more resources, to educate their children,” she said.