Jean Gough, Country Director, United
Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said that no fewer
than 10.5 million Nigerian children are out of school.
 |
| Children out of school |
Gough stated this on Tuesday in Bauchi
while exchanging views with Gov. Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi State at
the Government House.
She said that UNICEF was collaborating
with some stakeholders to strengthen the newly-introduced Quranic School
System to reduce the number of out-of-school children.
She disclosed that the fund had
concluded plan to tackle the issue of child malnutrition in the state as
it had discovered that 90 per cent of child diseases was as a result of
malnutrition.
Gough also announced that UN body would
curb public defecation, especially with more than 2,000 communities in
the state defecating in open places.
“We intend to ensure that before I leave
the country, at least one local government area in Bauchi state is
public-defecation free.
“We will also work in collaboration with
the state government to boost water and sanitation towards the supply
of adequate and portable drinking water.
“I will, therefore, want to appeal to
the state government to pay its counterpart fund to enable us execute
some of the projects,” she said.
In his response, Gov. Abubakar promised
that the state government would renew all counterpart funding
arrangements it had with donor agencies.
Abubakar assured that he would ensure
that the funds were paid on monthly basis to enable the state to benefit
from some of the projects.
He said that the government would
collaborate with UNICEF to ensure that one local government area became
public-defecation free to improve the public health status of the state.
(NAN)
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