Back-To-School Campaign: We Have 10 Years Development Plan, Says UNICEF

*Says No Child Will Be Left Behind*

To ensure proper implementation of the ongoing “Back-to-school campaign in South Eastern part of Nigeria, UNICEF said its sector plan has ten years development plan for the ongoing Back-to-school campaigns in South East.
The intent is to assure that no child will be left behind.
The UNICEF Education Specialist, Enugu office,Dr.Agatha Nzeribe disclosed to newsmen during the “Back-to-school campaign in Abakaliki,the capital of Ebonyi state stating that the ten years development plan is to be implemented in a three years operational plan and will be reviewed every three years to identify the gaps in order to plan for the next three years.
Mrs.Nzeribe assured that no single child will be left behind saying that every community has a structure and a place designated as school and shall be made child’s friendly.
“The sector plan is a ten-year development plan but it is to be implemented in three years operational plan.So, every three years,it has to be reviewed, identify the gaps and plan for the next three years.
We developed the plan that qualified the States to get BESDA.I trust it is being followed accordingly to the sector plan of Ebonyi state.The result will be clear after three years of implementation. The sector plan has taken care of all the challenges and has to be followed for proper implementation.
“It is in our culture to train our children.We are sensitizing them on what the know best to do.Every Community has a structure and a place designated as school.The next is to make the place child’s friendly”,she explained.
She fur explained that they have achieved most of their focus by reaching the stakeholders at the local and state level and the are cooperating and even moving the programme forward calling on parents to train their children because the greatest investment in life is to give their children the best education.
The UNICEF programme manager, Ebonyi state Universal Basic Education Board,Dr.Christogonus Nweke noted that the “Back-to-school campaign” in Ebonyi state is yielding positive fruit since the stakeholders including the Royal fathers, religious leaders,town Union,youth and women organizations are corporating and giving their maximum support to ensure that the Programme is actualized.He therefore charged parents and guidance never to play with the education of their children since education is the bedrock of development.

Also speaking,the Director of Planning, Research and statistics in Ministry of Education,Mr.Emmanuel Agbafor applauded the efforts of UNICEF and Ebonyi state government to ensure that our children received basic education by providing all the facilities needed for the programme urging parents and guidance to do everything possible to enroll their children back to school because education is power.
The UNICEF team during the “Back-to-school campaign” visited Ezza-Ofu Townhall and Nwofe Central School in Izzi local government area of Ebonyi state where the mate with the community leaders,head teachers parents and guidance to ensure the success of the ongoing campaign.