Education
Nigeria must invest on teachers to achieve SDGs 2030 — UNICEF
NNN: The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has reiterated the need for greater investment in teachers, both in time and official resources, to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
UNICEF Education Manager Ms. Manar Ahmed had this to say during a presentation on: Scaling up fundamental literacy and numeracy in Nigeria, in Kano on Friday.
The event, which is a two-day Media Dialogue on the SDGs, aimed to promote, protect, advocate and collaborate with stakeholders for the realization of children’s rights in the country.
Ahmed said that it is not enough to address teacher training, but also to ensure action plans to improve teaching and learning in the right environment.
According to her, Nigeria is not lacking in the right policy, but the country’s staggering learning crisis is one of the lowest in the world.
“In sub-Saharan Africa, 87 per cent of children are in learning poverty as they lack basic literacy.
“The fourth goal of the SDGs is to ensure inclusive, equitable and quality education that promotes lifelong learning and all children should be able to read and do arithmetic.
“It’s not that Nigeria lacks the right policy, but Nigeria is facing a staggering crisis and the learning outcomes are one of the lowest.
“So 70 percent of the kids in school are not getting the basic foundational skills,” he said.
He added that 27 percent of the teaching staff in Nigeria were unqualified, as qualified teachers were in short supply.
He said that it was necessary to learn to read to read in order to learn to achieve the SDGs by 2030.
“We need to do more on the structural approach to learning, community engagement to ensure accountability.
“The structural approach is better for teacher training, so on-the-job training and creating the right environment is important,” he said.
Therefore, he commended the country for its role in bringing about great change since 2017, when the national assessment of learning outcomes was carried out.
She said more needs to be done to achieve the 17 SDG targets. Government allocation to education should be increased.
Furthermore, Dr. Uche Anunne, Editorial Training Coordinator, Nigerian News Agency , said that strong institutions are required to ensure the quality of teachers in the country.
Anunne said most of the SDGs had an impact on children’s rights and said all hands must be on deck to get things right by 2030.
Source Credit: NAN
