The United Nations Childrens’ Education Fund, UNICEF, has engaged in partnership with the Nasarawa State Universal Basic Education Board to ensure the return of students, who have been out-of-school due to the COVID-19 pandemic that ravaged many states of the country.
Education Officer of UNICEF in-charge of Nasarawa, Kaduna, Niger and Kwara states, Francis Elisha, made the disclosure on Thursday in Lafia during a media dialogue with Journalists and staff of the state Ministry of Education.
He regretted that the Covid-19 pandemic affected the economy of the country in no small measure which led to the loss of jobs of many parents, thereby making their children unable to continue with their educational pursuit.
Elisha said that the partnership between UNICEF and Nasarawa state government was going to bridge the gap as they were ready to support the state to ensure that every child gets the opportunity to be educated.
He said that the partnership was aim to ensure that every child in ths state, who desires to go to school is not deprived of the opportunity to be educated, stressing that many children in both the urban and rural areas were out of school because their parents could not afford to send them back to school after the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We feel it is important we come up with policies and programmes that will help children get back to school and secure their environments against every form of danger so that they can concentrate on their studies and become great people in future”, he added.
In his remark, Chairman of SUBEB, Muhammed Dan’azimi, who was represented by the Director of Academic Services of the board, Ibrahim Eshi, thanked UNICEF for the partnership, assuring that the state government would do everything within its powers to ensure that the aims and objectives of the programme was achieved.
