By Alice Etuka, Abuja
Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman has disclosed that the Federal Government enrolled over two million out-of-school children into Basic and Arabic literacy programmes within six months.
Mamman stated this on Monday, April 2, 2024, at the quarterly citizens’ and stakeholders’ engagement on Nigerian education sector ministerial deliverables in Abuja.
The Minister stated that the topmost priority of his ministry was to build a reliable and authentic database for the sector, promote skills development and acquisition, and reduce by a great percentage, the number of out-of-school children.
He disclosed that the ministry developed a strategic plan captioned, “Nigerian Education Sector Roadmap (2024-2027)”, in order to achieve its aim.
He further stated that, “to deliver on the mandate of the president, there is a need to engage with stakeholders to provide opportunities to critically examine the progress in the implementation of 23 Ministerial Deliverables.
“It is one of the major focus of this administration to reduce the numbers of out-of-school children. While the commission set up to reduce this number, the problem of out-of-school is still ongoing.
“What we reported is the outcome from other agencies of the ministry that are doing their own part to ensure the problem is addressed”.
Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Education, Dr. Yusuf Sununu said the ministry deployed technology in education to promote learning as well as skills development and acquisition at all levels.
Sununu said this would address the learning crisis at basic education level:
“We quite believe that there is a need for a strong team approach in addressing the numerous challenges confronting our education sector.
“Education being a tool for individual, community, country, and global development cannot be treated in isolation.
“It was in realisation of this that the International Labor Organisation classified education as an exportable commodity. By extension, therefore, the need for both local and international collaboration becomes a necessity,” he said.
