By Favour Nnabugwu

United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has expressed skepticism over the ability of African countries to meet Education for All, EFA target by 2015 despite concerted efforts by African leaders.

Programmes Director, (UNICEF), Dr. Nicholas Alipui, who stated this at a recent interactive session with newsmen in Abuja, said there is hope if there would be collective efforts in removing some of the barriers militating against educational development.

“I think the target is going to be quite difficult for many African countries but it is certain that there have been a lot of progress in education over the last 20 years and we have seen remarkable achievement in terms of access to school,” Alipui said.

He disclosed that many countries have removed a number of barriers such as financial constraint like school fees abolition in Kenya and cash transfer to help families  to pay.

“I am optimistic for the sessions here this week have focused essentially on strategies to achieve greater result in education. We reviewed the expectation of African states and member-states were very clear and unequivocal in saving the priority for education.”

On the issue of equity, Alipui opined that it is a question of identifying which children failed geographically whether or not as a result of gender or other forms of deprivation that are not currently reached by the education system and deliberately focusing strategies on reaching these children with the best possible available teaching and learning materials, teachers for these schools and improving the teaching condition and the social condition of teachers.

Alipui advised that one of the ways to ensure speedy implementation of plan of action towards achieving EFA goals is to ensure participation of civil societies, parents and school management.