The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has once again indicated reasons why Education should be given priority by the incoming administration.
This is as the world body is projecting significant investment in primary education,with about 50 percent education budget to be deployed to the basic sub- sector.
Chief Education, UNICEF Nigeria, Saadhna Panday Soobrayan who in Abuja stated this at a seminar on foundational literacy and Numeracy in Nigeria expressed worry that Nigeria still spends 1.2 percent of its GDP on education, acknowledging that it is a far cry from the 4.6 percent international bench mark.
She further attributed the resultant effect of the development to reasons why UNICEF In the last five years has been testing various interventions such as Reading and Numeracy Activity(RANA) to solve the learning crisis in Nigeria.
Responding on behalf of the federal government, the director of basic education, federal ministry of education Dr Folake Olatunji Davies, revealed plans by the government to develop appropriate policy frame work to support Foundational literacy and Numeracy practice and approaches within the country.
Other speakers on their part called for further upscaling of Foundational Literacy and Numeracy in Nigeria.
The meeting is expected to come up with recommendations that will promote the FLN models and lessons from the implementation of foundational learning programmes in Northern Nigeria.
