Dr. Rownak Khan is the Representative a.i, UNICEF. In this interview with Funmi Ogundare, she explained the different initiatives the fund had taken to ensure that out-of-school children in Nigeria receive education and why it is imperative for the government to increase the budget and use it to ensure that school processes work efficiently and quality teachers are recruited to keep children in school
One of the initiatives UNICEF intends to embark on this year is ensuring that 15 million out-of-school children return to the classrooms. How do you hope to achieve this, considering the huge number?
Nigeria is one of the countries with the largest number of out-of-school children. So, it is the primary responsibility of the government to ensure that out-of-school children return to school. The efforts we implemented in 2023 will continue in 2024 as well. We had worked with the government to introduce the Nigerian Learning Passport (NLP), a digital online platform that allows children who are out-of-school to get the basic curriculum of the school, and we have included modules that will not only help them with basic literacy and numeracy but also help them to access opportunities. So, it allows those who may not come back to school to get the opportunities as well. We have supported educational plans in the northern states such as Bornu, Yobe, Adamawa, Bauch, Kebbi as well as Lagos by improving the standards of education, which allows children to come back to school. We also worked with the national School Based Management Committee (SBMC) which has been a vital step in addressing challenges such as school-based violence, climate change, etc. It is not possible to bring back all the children at once, but we are doing it incrementally. We also ensured that the girl-child is taken back to school. We don’t only rely on formal education. We also take care of the informal education of vulnerable children, especially those with disabilities.
How do you measure the success of last year’s projects?
We support the government in building the system. Our main focus is to improve the system, but one of the major bottlenecks that we found is that there is less allocation of funds for school operational costs. So finance is one area where we are trying to work with the government to unlock the domestic funds because they cannot rely on funds from partners like the UN agencies and other development partners. So this is one area that we would like to continue talking to the government about to increase their budget and efficiently use it to ensure that the schools are ramped properly and teachers are being recruited. So, teacher recruitment and operational costs are still the issues, but we will continue emphasising these. In addition, we have been supporting the national education strategy, which focuses on transition, retention and completion of adolescent boys and girls in schools in five key states in the north. We are also focusing on children who are left behind. Data shows that children with disabilities are mostly left behind and are not counted or brought back to school. We are working towards developing a national framework for inclusive education. We will continue our efforts on the use of NLP. In 2023, we will have reached about 750,000 children, so the goal is to reach another 750,000 in 2024. So these are a couple of things that we will keep on doing.
What states have you worked with to take out-of-school children back to school?
We have supported 12 states, including Lagos, Bauchi, Adamawa, Bornu, Kaduna, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano and Yobe, Kano and Kebbi and Zamfara states.
What efforts are you putting in place to ensure the security of the children aside from just putting them in classrooms?
We have been working with the SBMC of the schools and developed a document that will help them in these challenges, like ensuring the safety and security of the children. We also encouraged them with online education and work with traditional and religious leaders to make the school safe for children. Sometimes, there are areas that constitute a challenge for us. School safety is one of the areas we look into, and sometimes, there is a bit of violence in schools, so we provide guidelines to the SBMC on how to address those issues.
Why do you consider these efforts as important?
We consider them as important based on evidence. We started on a small scale, and we have seen the results, so this gives us confidence that we can bring the children back to school. At the same time, a lot of these issues are deep-rooted because society does not really value girls. This is one of the reasons why they don’t go to school. Technology is another reason. We are working with the communities to address the importance of girls’ education. Through our other programmes, such as social policy, we are also working with the government on cash transfers to some families living below the poverty line so that their children can come to school rather than allow them to work on the farms or resolve to begging. We also work with the almajiris; a lot of the children have been brought back to school through our initiative. We have created a curriculum that will make them come back to school. Sometimes, they continue with their Quranic school and at the same time, we allow them to have basic education on numeracy and literacy.
Do you have any specific time frame for your projects, and how much investment are you looking at from the government?
UNICEF is advocating with the government in developing an evidence-based roadmap to progressively increase domestic spending on education from 1.2 per cent (15-20 per cent of total public expenditure) by 2030 to align with the national commitment made by Nigeria at the 2022 Transforming Education Summit, to increase the allocation to primary education to 29 to 45 per cent in alignment with the global benchmark to accelerate access to primary education.
What advice do you have for the government on funding?
The Nigerian government needs to ensure quality education for the children.
What are your expectations for your project this year?
Due to the sheer volume of children in this country, every year, millions of children lack the basic right to education, and the numbers keep growing. So there will be a huge number of children who will not be able to come to school. Our expectation is that all children can be brought back to education, both formal and informal. The government takes ownership, accountability and responsibility at the national and international levels. So recently, we have also worked with the government to develop a roadmap that focuses on access to and quality of education in Nigeria.
UNICEF has also been involved in documenting childbirths and raising awareness on vaccinations. What is your assessment of the efforts you have put in place in the past on these?
As an organisation that promotes the convention of the rights of the child, one of the basic principles is the survival of children. Vaccination is one of the main instruments or tools used in saving the lives of millions of children around the world. For us, it is one of the tools that has worked to save children from vaccine-preventable diseases. That is why it is part of the basic right of the child to get vaccination, as it allows them to survive. So it is really important for us that in Nigeria, more than two million children who have never received any vaccine be vaccinated. What happens when they are not vaccinated? They may die due to some of these preventable diseases or become disabled. For instance, polio is one of the vaccine-preventable diseases. So vaccination is very important for us. There is a need for a child to live a healthy and productive life. We have been working with different communities, local government areas, and state-level counterparts to vaccinate the children. In 2023, our efforts led to the introduction of a vaccine that can fight against five diseases and about 250,000 children were vaccinated within one year. We are doing a study in some of the areas to help us understand why some parents were not bringing their children for vaccination. So, we need to understand the community attitudes, the barriers and the information that will inform our strategy.
Most schools resumed this week for a new academic session. What is your advice?
Parents should enrol their children in schools but ensure they continue to study because a lot of them enrol but drop out. The state-level government should also ensure a conducive environment with proper teachers with the right training to teach in the schools.
