The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman says the Federal Government is committed to the ideals, policies and programmes of UNESCO to achieve SDGs and other Global Development Agenda.
Mamman spoke at the 42nd Session of the UNESCO General Conference in Paris, France
This is contained in a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja by Dr Armaya’u Yabo, Special Assistant to the Director and Chief Executive of the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI), Kaduna, Prof. Musa Garba-Maitafsir.
Mamman said, ”We remain committed to hosting a UNESCO Category 2 International Institute for Media and Information Literacy and will work with UNESCO to make this a reality.
”Other activities in the sector include and not limited to the implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy, building national capacity for emerging technologies by establishing a National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and developing a National Policy on Artificial Intelligence and its ethical use, as well as its integration into the educational curricula.
” Excellencies, in conclusion, Nigeria appreciates the successful outcomes of the Nigeria-UNESCO cooperation over the years. However, the recent development in the Abuja office, especially, the location of its Communication and Information sector to the Multi-sectoral Regional Office in Dakar is a concern.
”While the Abuja component is functional, the Dakar component is not, and no budgetary appropriation as yet to Abuja. We therefore strongly appeal that UNESCO relocates all the sectors to the Abuja Office. Although we reason with the exigency of a reform, the Abuja Office should function in full capacity in all UNESCO’s areas of competence.”
According to the Minister, the global community is still dealing with the fall-out of the COVID-19 pandemic, accentuated by other global challenges such as economic crisis, increased conflicts, climate change, disaster risks and deprivation of rights to education.
Mamman said, ”In spite of these, UNESCO has continued to be relevant in proffering solutions where its mandates apply. Nigeria believes in the value UNESCO adds to our collective and individual national efforts in education, the sciences, culture, communication and information.
”We shall continue to expand the frontiers of this partnership and remain resolute in the commitment to uphold UNESCO’s mandates as follows:1. In Education, we note the increased availability of resources to the African region and decentralization as it affects the sector.
”We are pleased with the Director-General’s pragmatic proposals of the Case BASE budget scenario within the Integrated Budget Framework.Nigeria is consolidating the Safe Schools Initiative as well as reviewing progress in our commitments to the Declaration.
” National Commitments made during the Transforming Education Summit are driving our domestic action and we will continue to monitor progress of Education 2030 as we look forward to the “Summit of the Future” in September 2024.
” Therefore, the government is sustaining the National Home Grown School Feeding Programme; the Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA) and a number of other programmes that target Out-of-School Children, especially the establishment of a National Commission for Almajiri and Out of School Children Education.”
The minister said to increase the employability of our youths, Nigeria has developed critical innovations such as Open, Distance and Flexible E-learning systems, STEM Education, Inclusive Education for the challenged, the Nigeria Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) and a Tertiary Education, Research, Applications and Services (TERAS) platform.
Komentarze