By Christiana Ekpa
The Speaker of the House of Representatives Rt. Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, Ph.D, has stressed the need for Nigeria to have a regulatory framework in place for emerging technologies.
Speaker Abbas noted that though new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and robotics have immense benefits, there is the need to check their misuse and abuse.
The Speaker, therefore, disclosed his readiness to sponsor a bill seeking to regulate emerging technologies soon.
Speaker Abbas made this known in Abuja on Monday at the 2022/2023 Convocation Ceremony of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies-University of Benin (NILDS-UNIBEN).
He said: “We are all aware of the challenges facing the education sector in Nigeria, including low enrolment, especially in rural areas. Despite government efforts and huge investment through the Universal Basic Education (UBEC), the challenge remains substantial. Out of 258 million out-of-school children worldwide, an estimated 62 million are in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“Nigeria accounts for a substantial percentage of this number. Other related challenges confronting the sector include low quality, outdated curricula, insufficient infrastructure and gender disparities. These existing problems have been worsened by insecurity and the COVID-19 pandemic. In north-eastern Nigeria, attacks on schools, students, and teachers profoundly disrupted education.”
Cognisant of these and related challenges, the Speaker said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, is committed to repositioning and revitalising the education sector to make it more suited to meet contemporary challenges.
He stated: “Of particular interest is the need to reform and update school curricula to ensure relevance in a rapidly changing global landscape. An outdated curriculum has been shown to result in skills mismatch and stagnation in innovation. This is important given that we live in a highly digital and innovations are evolving at the speed of light.”
Speaker Abbas noted that technological and scientific innovations such as in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are presenting opportunities hitherto thought impossible.
