The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, has said more than one million out-of-school children have returned to the classroom in the last 20 months.
This is contained in a statement issued on Tuesday in Abuja by the Special Adviser on Media and Communications to the minister, Ikharo Attah.
Attah quoted the minister to have disclosed this while receiving the newly appointed United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Country Representative to Nigeria, Prof. Isaiah Da Rosa, on a courtesy visit in his office.
The minister also disclosed that almost 6.7 million girls had benefited from interventions aimed at improving access to and retention in school.
He, however, advocated a balanced approach to girl-child and boy-child education, stressing that the country’s human capital development must leave no child behind.
“While we sustain the gains made in girl-child education, we must also give greater attention to the educational needs of boys.
“Our human capital development must leave no child behind,” he said.
The minister said the reform programme focused on six areas: TVET, STEM, out-of-school children, digitalisation, girl-child education and quality assurance.
He said significant investments were being made in skills development, technology and teacher capacity, while reliable data was increasingly being used to identify needs, target interventions and measure outcomes.
The minister also welcomed UNESCO’s technical support in teacher development and highlighted the ministry’s Accelerated Teacher Professional Programme, which targets one million in-service teachers.
He also acknowledged UNESCO’s contributions to TVET assessment and digital transformation, education for peace, and media and information literacy.
Alausa said collaboration with UNESCO would be most effective when it reinforced programmes and initiatives already established by the Federal Government.
“Partnerships will be most effective when they reinforce programmes and initiatives already established by the Nigerian Government,” he said.
He assured Da Rosa that the ministry would continue to work closely with UNESCO to deliver practical results under President Bola Tinubu’s education transformation agenda.
Earlier, Da Rosa reaffirmed UNESCO’s commitment to supporting Nigeria’s education reform efforts, describing the organisation as a technical partner ready to provide expertise in areas identified by the country.
He recalled UNESCO’s longstanding presence in Nigeria since the 1960s and highlighted its work in TVET, teacher development, education for peace, science, culture, communication and information.
Da Rosa commended the ministry’s progress in digitising education data and expressed readiness to deepen cooperation in TVET, teacher capacity development and the reintegration of out-of-school children.
He disclosed that UNESCO-supported programmes had trained more than 28,000 teachers across different states and reached over 1.7 million students.
The UNESCO representative said the organisation’s specialised institutes remained available to provide additional expertise in support of Nigeria’s education sector.
He said UNESCO remained committed to mobilising domestic resources and leveraging strategic technical partnerships to improve access, strengthen quality and equip both boys and girls with the knowledge and skills required to contribute meaningfully to Nigeria’s development. (NAN)