By Adeola Kunle
The Federal Government has called for stronger technical cooperation with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as part of efforts to accelerate the implementation of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s education transformation agenda.
The Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, CON, made the appeal in Abuja when he received the newly appointed UNESCO Country Representative to Nigeria, Professor Isaiah Barreto Da Rosa, who paid him a courtesy visit.
The meeting provided an opportunity for both sides to review existing cooperation and explore additional areas where UNESCO can support Nigeria’s ongoing education reforms.
Alausa said the Federal Government had recorded notable progress in tackling the challenge of children being excluded from formal education. According to him, more than one million out-of-school children have been brought back into classrooms within the past 20 months.
He added that nearly 6.7 million girls had benefited from government interventions designed to increase access to education and encourage school retention.
While acknowledging the progress made in promoting girl-child education, the Minister called for a broader approach that would also address the educational challenges facing boys.
He stressed that Nigeria’s human capital development efforts must be inclusive, ensuring that neither boys nor girls are left behind.
According to Alausa, the Federal Government’s education reform programme is built around six major priorities: Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), the reintegration of out-of-school children, data and digitalisation, girl-child education, and quality assurance.
He explained that the government was committing substantial resources to skills development, digital technology and teacher capacity building, while the increasing use of dependable education data was helping authorities identify gaps, direct interventions and assess their impact.
On teacher development, the Minister welcomed UNESCO’s technical assistance and highlighted the Ministry’s Accelerated Teacher Professional Programme, an initiative designed to reach one million serving teachers.
He also recognised UNESCO’s support in areas such as TVET assessment, digital transformation, peace education, and media and information literacy.
Alausa noted that technical partnerships would deliver greater value when they complement and strengthen programmes already initiated by the Nigerian Government.
Earlier, Professor Isaiah Barreto Da Rosa reaffirmed UNESCO’s readiness to provide technical expertise in areas identified as priorities by Nigeria.
He described UNESCO as a long-standing partner of the country, recalling that the organisation has maintained a presence in Nigeria since the 1960s and has contributed to initiatives covering TVET, teacher development, peace education, science, culture, communication and information.
Da Rosa commended the Ministry for its progress in digitising education data and expressed UNESCO’s willingness to expand its collaboration with Nigeria, particularly in TVET, teacher capacity development and efforts to return out-of-school children to learning.
The UNESCO Country Representative disclosed that programmes supported by the organisation had so far trained more than 28,000 teachers across different states and reached over 1.7 million students.
He further stated that UNESCO’s specialised institutes remained available to provide additional technical knowledge and expertise to support Nigeria’s education priorities.
Responding, Alausa assured the UNESCO representative that the Ministry would sustain close cooperation with the organisation in pursuit of measurable outcomes under President Tinubu’s education reform agenda.
He reiterated the Federal Government’s determination to mobilise domestic resources while also making effective use of strategic technical partnerships to expand access to education, improve quality and provide Nigerian children with the knowledge and skills required to make meaningful contributions to national development.
The Minister emphasised that the reform agenda would continue to focus on creating opportunities for both boys and girls while strengthening the overall quality, relevance and effectiveness of Nigeria’s education system.
Adeola Kunle
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