UNICEF pledges sustainable support for education development in North-East

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has pledged to sustain its support for more children to have access to education in the North-East.

Ms Christian Munduate, the UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, stated this during her visit to the American University of Nigeria (AUN)’s feed and read programme for 100 out-of-school children in Yola on Monday.

She disclosed plans to increase the number for more children to access the services through AUN and other public schools in the region.

Munduate also called on the state governments to provide funding for the development of education at the grassroots and also expressed the need for private sectors to be committed for children to succeed in life.

She said children need to be educated if not they would become a challenge in the future.

She advised the beneficiaries to be attending the class for them to be educated, useful for themselves, families and the community in the future.

“We have 50 girls and 50 boys in the programme and the idea is to expand in this accelerated programme to bring children to cater for their studies in a shorter period is very intense.

“And the good news of these children is that their capacity to learn is amazing.

“So from what I have seen they are really advancing and to them without this programme they will not have the opportunity to come to school to learn, read and write or even basic arithmetic,” the UNICEF official said.

According to her, hopefully after the programme they will be able to enroll to formal education to continue learning and have opportunities to change in life when they grow up.

Munduate added that when they grow they would have access to more opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship and even farming.

Prof. Yusuf Attahiru, the AUN interim President, appreciated UNICEF for impacting positively on children in the state and country at large.

According to him, AUN is also committed on community services and community development which result to succeed recorded on the ongoing feed and read programme, among others.

He also urged for more partnership for the development of education, among other programmes in the institution.