…Says over 10million children not in school due to attacks
From Scholastica Onyeka, Makurdi
As Nigeria joins the rest of Africa to commemorate the Day of the African Child, (DAC), United Nations Children’s Fund, (UNICEF), has called on government and other stakeholders to exploit the opportunities offered by digitalization for learning and development of Nigerian children.
UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Cristian Munduate, who made this call in a statement made available to newsmen in Makurdi, said “Digital technology provides us with a platform to innovate and seeks ways for inclusive quality education for all children”
She noted that the education sector in Nigeria is faced with numerous challenges, including access to quality learning which is inhibited by low domestic spending on education resulting in limited school infrastructure and qualified teachers, high levels of poverty and social norms not supportive of education especially for girls.
She also stated that the challenges are exacerbated by attacks on schools and abduction of learners saying “Both have made parents fearful of sending their children to school.
Munduate said the disruption to education by school attacks has meant millions of children have significantly missed out on learning they would have acquired if they had been in the classroom.
The UNICEF representative disclosed that “More than 10 million children are not in school at the primary level. For those in school, the quality of learning is poor; 75 per cent of primary school age pupils are unable to read with understanding or solve a simple math problem.
“To bridge the access to quality learning opportunities, UNICEF and the Federal Ministry of Education launched the Nigeria Learning Passport, (NLP), last year, an online, mobile, and offline digital learning platform powered by Microsoft that enables continuous access to 15,000 curriculum aligned learning and training materials in local languages for learners, teachers, and parents
“I urge all stakeholders in the education sector to adopt and take the Nigeria Learning Passport to scale to reduce the number of children not receiving any education in Nigeria. It will also improve foundational literacy and numeracy,” she said.
She explained that the NLP is highly flexible and adaptable, allowing states, schools, teachers, parents, and other users to adapt it easily and quickly as their learning management system in school, for homework support and to ensure continuity of learning when schools are closed in emergency contexts
“The NLP is inclusive enough to bridge the digital divide because of the availability of an offline module that allows for deployment in rural and hard-to-reach environments where there is no access to the internet.
“To this end, UNICEF has provided 780 schools in hard-to-areas and rural schools with 13,500 tablets, 1,000 smart rechargeable projectors and 780 Airtel internet routers. Connectivity has been enabled for 186 schools through a partnership with IHS towers and data costs removed through the whitelisting of the NLP on an Airtel SIM card.
She noted that since its inception, the NLP has provided access to quality teaching and learning resources to 280,000 learners, teachers, parents and young people.
The theme for this year’s Day of the African Child; “The rights of the child in the digital environment” offers an opportunity to advocate for digital inclusiveness for all children, hence the right of every child to participate in the digital space, Munduate added.