{"id":24544,"date":"2022-05-27T13:06:57","date_gmt":"2022-05-27T12:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theplatformonline.com\/?p=24544"},"modified":"2022-05-27T13:06:57","modified_gmt":"2022-05-27T12:06:57","slug":"childrens-day-despite-prolonged-universities-closure-buhari-says-education-is-priority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theplatformonline.com\/childrens-day-despite-prolonged-universities-closure-buhari-says-education-is-priority\/","title":{"rendered":"Children\u2019s Day: Despite prolonged universities\u2019 closure, Buhari says education is priority"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"jeg_post_subtitle\">The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) currently puts the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria at 18.5 million.<\/h2>\n<div class=\"jeg_meta_container\">\n<div class=\"jeg_post_meta jeg_post_meta_1\">\n<p>Despite the continued closure of Nigerian public universities for more than three months over workers\u2019 strikes, President Muhammadu Buhari has insisted that his administration is committed to ensuring access to education for every child.<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria\u2019s university-based unions including the\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/asuunigeria.org\/\">Academic Staff Union of Universities<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0(ASUU), the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU), the Non-Academic Union of Allied and Educational Institutions (NASU) and the National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) have downed tools for months, crippling activities on the nation\u2019s tertiary institutions.<\/p>\n<p>They are demanding better funding for the university system and welfare for their members.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Children\u2019s Day statement<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>In a statement to commemorate this year\u2019s International Children\u2019s Day, marked on May 27 every year, Mr Buhari said the education of the Nigerian child will remain on the front burner for his government.<\/p>\n<p>The president said he is committed to education and will continue to work hard to ensure that every child has access to education, \u201cwhich prepares them for a bright future.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOther issues \u2013 healthcare, protection from harm, drugs, cultism, child trafficking and abuse, domestic violence- are equally receiving needed attention from the government,\u201d he said in a statement by Femi Adesina, his special adviser on media and publicity.<\/p>\n<p>The statement noted that the president recognised the place of education in the development of every country.<\/p>\n<p>It said Mr Buhari\u2019s government is committed to seeing a further significant reduction in the number of out-of-school children.<\/p>\n<p>The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) currently puts the number of\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.premiumtimesng.com\/news\/top-news\/529067-ten-million-nigerian-girls-are-out-of-school-unicef.html\">out-of-school children in Nigeria<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0at 18.5 million.<\/p>\n<p>Chief of UNICEF Field Office in Kano, Rahama Farah, at a training with journalists in the city, said bandits\u2019 attacks in the North-west states have also compounded the situation.<\/p>\n<p>The statement also quoted Mr Buhari to have said that Nigerian children deserve the best and a safe country where they can grow, make friends, interact and travel freely, and emerge as successful leaders in different fields of endeavour.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018\u2018With our investments in infrastructure, youth development, education, Information and Communication Technology, Digital Economy, Culture, Arts and Entertainment in the last seven years, I believe we are laying a solid foundation for a better quality of life for future generations in the country,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n<p>Source:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) currently puts the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":24546,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[2275,2274],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theplatformonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24544"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theplatformonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theplatformonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theplatformonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theplatformonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theplatformonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theplatformonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theplatformonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theplatformonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theplatformonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}