More than one million out of school children have returned to the classroom in the last 20 months under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, CON, has disclosed.
Alausa made the disclosure on Tuesday in Abuja while receiving the newly appointed UNESCO Country Representative to Nigeria, Professor Isaiah Barreto Da Rosa, who paid him a courtesy visit.
The Minister also disclosed that nearly 6.7 million girls had benefited from government interventions aimed at improving access to education and retention in school.
He, however, called for a more balanced approach to education interventions, urging greater attention to the educational needs of boys while sustaining the gains recorded in girl child education.
Alausa said Nigeria’s human capital development agenda must ensure that no child is left behind, stressing the need for deeper collaboration between the Federal Government and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).
He said the partnership would focus on strengthening ongoing reforms across six priority areas: Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), reintegration of out of school children, data and digitalisation, girl child education, and quality assurance.
According to him, the Federal Government is investing significantly in skills development, technology and teacher capacity, while increasingly relying on reliable education data to identify needs, target interventions and measure outcomes.
On teacher development, Alausa welcomed UNESCO’s technical support and highlighted the Ministry’s Accelerated Teacher Professional Programme, which targets one million in service teachers.
He also acknowledged UNESCO’s contributions to TVET assessment and digital transformation, education for peace, and media and information literacy.
The Minister said international partnerships would deliver greater impact when they complement and strengthen programmes already established by the Nigerian Government.
Earlier, Da Rosa reaffirmed UNESCO’s commitment to supporting Nigeria’s education transformation agenda, describing the organisation as a technical partner ready to provide expertise in areas identified as priorities by the country.
He recalled UNESCO’s longstanding presence in Nigeria since the 1960s and highlighted its interventions in TVET, teacher development, education for peace, science, culture, communication and information.
Da Rosa commended the Ministry’s progress in digitising education data and expressed UNESCO’s readiness to deepen cooperation in TVET, teacher capacity development and the reintegration of out of school children.
He disclosed that UNESCO supported programmes had trained more than 28,000 teachers across different states and reached over 1.7 million students.
The UNESCO representative also said the organisation’s specialised institutes remained available to provide additional technical expertise to support Nigeria’s education reforms.
Reaffirming the Federal Government’s commitment to the partnership, Alausa assured UNESCO that the Ministry would continue to work closely with the organisation to deliver practical results under President Tinubu’s education reform agenda.
He said the administration remained committed to mobilising domestic resources and leveraging strategic technical partnerships to expand access to education, improve quality and equip both boys and girls with the knowledge and skills needed to contribute meaningfully to Nigeria’s development.
