The government of Kaduna says it will partner with UNICEF to deliver quality healthcare, education and nutrition services to residents of the state.

Deputy Governor Hadiza Balarabe said this while receiving the UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Peter Hawkins, who visited the state on Friday.

Mrs Balarabe said that the Kaduna state government was strong on human capital development and considered its residents to be top priority.

According to the deputy governor, “we are looking at all issues under human capital whether it is health, education and other related areas.”

Mrs Balarabe said the state has a policy council that meets every two weeks to deliberate on this issue, adding that the state government will do more on childhood immunisation, though not there in water and sanitation.

“Last year, we had an outbreak of cholera but we do not want this again, we will let people know that they should ensure they keep their environment clean and not to openly defecate.

“We want to have all our communities open defecation free, we have about four LGAs now certified open defecation free but we want to have the remaining 19 to also be certified,” she said.

The deputy governor said Kaduna has always been a data state. “We drive ourselves to ensure that we get data that is reliable and realistic and we can say it’s reasonably realistic and we can base our planning on that.”

Earlier in his remarks, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Mr Hawkins, said the organisation will continue to partner with the state, focusing on children, health, education and protection and education for Almajiris.

Mr Hawkins said the objective was to digitalise education. “We could do well with the whole digitalisation and access to learning through digital means.

“As you know, the learning passport was launched months ago and which is an online, mobile and soon-to-be offline learning platform that will provide continuous education to three million learners in 2022.

“It means that any teacher or child who has the means can access the curriculum through an app which is easy for a child.

“We have to believe in children using technology to advance themselves and teaching at the right levels which allows numeracy and literacy and integrate the Quranic school curriculum for Quranic teaching.

“We talk about education and the importance of education management information systems and safe schools and how to ensure that children are able to go to school safely and get quality education,” he said.

On the issue of out-of-school children, including those on the streets, the UNICEF representative said, “we are looking at informal education, and teaching at the right level for numeracy and literacy.”

(NAN)