UNICEF vows to tackle high rate of out-of-school children

By Golok Nanmwa,Jos

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) yesterday said it is collaborating with some state Government to tackle the challenges of out-of-school children in the country .

Mr Bhanu Pathak, Chief Field Officer, UNICEF Nigeria, Bauchi Field Office, made this known while speaking with newsmen in Jos ,during the 2019 end of year review meeting of stakeholders for States supported by UNICEF Bauchi Field office held in Jos.

He further disclosed that many Nigeria children are out of school in the country .

Bhanu said that millions of out of school children are from the Northern states.

According to him, as a result of the out of school children UNICEF is focusing on selected 15 States that have more challenges on education and health issues.

In his words “The 2019 end of year review is to help us focus on our 2020 plan to ensure that this out of school children goes back to school and become important women and men in the Society, so we are developing a 2020 work plan review and amend the rolling work plans 2019/2020 for 2020 programme implementation”.

“60 percent of out of school are girls from the different religious and cultural backgrounds”.

He added that UNICEF will focus on the 15 states that are more challenging ,not only on education, but health Sector in the area of immunization, saying there are more children that are not fully immunized in those states.

The chief field officer said, the end of year review meeting with stakeholders is to present the achievements, identify key challenges, causes, provide solution and action plans to address the challenges.

“The Stakeholders review is also to brain storm on child friendly community initiative and create a common understanding on the objectives, strategies, and roll out plans, and agree on the way forward .”

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UNICEF Vows to Tackle High Rate of Out-of-school Children