CHENNAI : The Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Rima Y.Salah on Tuesday commended the State Government for its all-round progress in achieving the Millennium Goals.

Shortly after holding discussions with Minister for School Education Thangam Thennarasu and Chief Secretary L.K.Tripathy, she told reporters at the Secretariat that the State Government had taken significant steps such as making school education free, apart from providing free textbooks and uniforms to students. She also appreciated the State for its noon-meal scheme. All these were ingredients that made education successful, she pointed out.

All indicators had also shown that the State had made a great progress in promoting the welfare of children.

For instance, the child mortality rate was at the level of 40:1000, which was good when compared to many countries. Still the officials in the State had told her that they could do better, she said.

Quality of education

Referring to the meetings she had with the Minister and the Chief Secretary, Ms. Salah said the discussions revolved around issues relating to methods to improve the quality of education.

Though the rate of enrolment had gone up, children could not be retained in schools if the quality of education was not improved, she added.

The UNICEF wanted to reinforce its partnership with the State Government in areas such as inclusion of life skills and better training for teachers, besides having integrated programmes, particularly based on the experience gained from the activities in schools in the tsunami-hit areas.

The UNICEF was ready to share experience and technology with the State Government.

As 50 per cent of the children in many countries were out of schools, it became important to create child-friendly schools, she said, adding that non-Governmental organisations could play a key role in improving the situation as they were close to the communities. Sanitation and water facilities had to be improved in schools to attract children to education.

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