From Kemi Yesufu
Education specialist with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Swadchet Sankey, has called on the Federal Government and states to improve investment in reducing the high level of disease burden among children under-five years.
Speaking on the first day of a two-day media dialogue on Early Childhood Development organised by UNICEF and the Child Rights Information Bureau (CRIB) of the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, Sankey said the Lancet Medical Journal Survey (2016) showed that globally, 250 million children are at risk of not reaching their full potentials in education, healthwise and overall development.
She explained that 2016 national survey indicates that 31 per cent of children under the age of five are moderately or severely underweight in Nigeria, adding that malnutrition negatively impacts on learning as well as it as makes children more susceptible to deadly diseases.
Sankey listed UNICEF recommended policies for ensuring that Nigerian children fair well in early development and are protected from killer diseases to include: two years of free pre-primary education, six months of paid maternity leave; and four weeks of paid paternity leave.
Nigeria currently has just three months of paid maternity leave, only one year of free pre-primary education and no paternity leave at all. Only about one in every 10 pre-primary children are enrolled in early education activities.
She said: “The goal of any investment in early childhood development is for all children in Nigeria, whether poor or rich from conception through to school to attain their development potential.”
Also speaking at the media dialogue, representative of the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Omokore Oluseyi, identified HIV/AIDS, malaria, diarrhoea, pneumonia and rising cases of malnutrition as the major contributors to deaths among children.
“These diseases, as they kill children, also affect their development milestones,” he said
He, however, gave assurance that the Federal Government was committed to improving outcomes from interventions targeted at drastically reducing infant and under-five mortality.