UN youth ambassador wants increased investment in education

United Nations (UN) youth ambassador, Francis Anyaegbu, wants the Federal Government to invest massively in education and diversify learning processes in the country, if it intends to put paid to the rising number of out-of-school children in the country.

Nigeria is home to about 10.6m out-of-school children, the highest number in the world. The bulk of this number is found in the North East, where insurgency has ravaged in the last six years.

Anyaegbu, who is also the assistant project director for Teammaster Spelling Bee Competition, while speaking in Lagos at the presentation of awards to students of Seylek Schools, who participated in the Teammaster Spelling Bee, said that the country needs to explore other options in its education system, which would ensure that young children are not left out of school as a result of location, security and other challenges.

The UN ambassador added that the quality and standard of education in the country could only be improved through serious commitment from government and other stakeholders in the education sector.

The proprietor of the school, Olalekan Olanrewaju, who lauded the initiative, said the competition has encouraged pupils to redouble their efforts by studying harder.

“The competition really helped our school; some of the contestants did continuous practice before they were able to make us proud today. And that has become a challenge to others because my students now study harder than before,” Olanrewaju said.

This was confirmed by Rosemary Eze, who emerged first runner up when she said, “I almost finished reading the Advance Oxford Learners Dictionary,” she revealed.

Winner of the competition, Balogun John, said the competition has improved his study habit as well as exposure and confidence.