The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has advocated for the media and ministries of education to cooperate and work out an aggressive marketing campaign strategy to promote increased enrollment of children into the Nigeria Learning Passport, (NLP).
The Chief of UNICEF Enugu Field Office, Juliet Chiluwe made the call at a one-day Media Dialogue put together by UNICEF Enugu Field Office for its three focus states of Enugu, Benue and Cross River to achieve uptake of NLP in all schools.
Declaring the Dialogue open, Chiluwe said that the meeting was a priority to acquaint the media network in those states with Nigerian Learning Passport model and its potential for educational advancement among the children.
Chiluwe, who was represented by Agatha Nzeribe, Education specialist UNICEF Enugu Field Office, said that NLP was a new solution designed to close learning gaps and also a programme to access uninterrupted and quality education.
She emphasised that in education perspective no child would be left out no matter the challenges and circumstances, “that is UNICEF commitment in Nigerian child.”
She lamented that three out of four children in Nigeria cannot read or solve simple maths problem, saying that Nigerian Learning Passport provides alternative to learning process as it gives skill to people in education system and provides continuous access to education for all children and teachers.
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Nzeribe identified limited quality education in language children understand, lack of quality curriculum and learning materials, and professional development resources to support provision of quality education among others and lack of quality learning resources and tools as challenges to access l quality education.
She stated that NLP is a once in a lifetime opportunity to transform education as it brings about remediation, community and parental engagement, digital/remote learning, among other benefits.
Earlier, the Communications Officer, UNICEF Enugu Field Office, Ijeoma Onuoha Ogwe who highlighted the objectives of the meeting appealed to the media network to cooperate with various state ministries of education to build an education camping in the states to enhance more registration of children on Nigerian Learning Passport.
She said that UNICEF has done a lot of things with the eight states to encourage the Nigerian learning passport since after the launch.
The communications officer said that despite assisting in training some of the teacher the organisation also provided some tablets in various States.
She emphasised the importance of NLP to the children and called on the media to develop a strategic and aggressive marketing approach to upgrade and grow the number of Registration on NLP in the states.
The permanent secretary Enugu Enugu State ministry of Education, represented by the Director Planning Research and statistics, Christ Edenwatu said that the state would henceforth ensure that all the head teachers in all the public schools comply with the registration of NLP starting with them and every member of the class.
He called on the pupils that have the opportunity of having Android phones to use them for meaningful things like NLP instead of using them for film and other past times.
On the Registration of the NLP, the former special adviser to the immediate past Enugu State commissioner for Education, Celestine Ngwu spoke on how to easily register the NLP. He said that instead of registering every member of a class one after the other, one Gmail could be opened for a class and get other members connected through what he called email alliance with either phone or Lap top.
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