-
As FG, UNICEF, others launch NLP
By Maryam Habeeb
Vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, said to ensure continuity of learning for all children, Nigeria must change and revamp the education sector.
Osinbajo stated this at the official launch of the Nigeria Learning Passport (NLP) in Abuja , a programme supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Microsoft and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).
NLP, which is an online, mobile, and soon–to–be offline platform that would allow continuous access to quality education, is aimed at reaching 3 million learners in 2022 and 12 million learners in the country by 2025.
It is designed for pre primary, primary and secondary school learning, providing access for children, youths and teachers to access a digitalised curriculum with learning materials in all core subjects for primary one to six, and all junior and secondary school classes.
Osinbajo, who was represented at the event by the Minister of State for Education, Hon. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, said there has been significant improvement in the sector but access to learning remains a big challenge.
“Over the last decade, Nigeria has made great strides in improving access to education. In the last five years, pre primary school participation has increased from 45% to 61%, primary enrollment has increased by 5 million. The rate of out of school children has decreased by 10% from 42% to 32%.
“These are phenomenal achievements but access to school does not equate to learning. Nigeria is facing a learning crisis. Millions of children and young people are not developing even the basic skills they need to break out of poverty due to destruction to schooling and learning by incessant security, COVID-19 as well as more recent attacks.
“To ensure continuity of learning for all children and the resilience of education systems to future shocks, we must change and reimagine the education sector.
“Deploying innovations that rethink the current methodologies, including new approaches to delivering education in ways that defy the digital divide, and ensuring learning continuity in emergencies, has become imperative.
“This launch set the foundation for creating a system of education where digital technology will be used to transform the way that learning is provided and meet the needs of every child. The NLP is an effective tool to ensure the continuity of learning through access to curriculum,” he said.
