Tinubu approves policies to boost learning, skills devt
PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has approved policies to overhaul the education sector towards improved learning and acquiring skills, increasing enrollment and ensuring the security of students.
The approved policies are captured as DOTS, an acronym representing: Data Repository, Out- of- School Children Education, Teacher Training and Development, Skill Development and Acquisition.
According to Tinubu, there is a paucity of coordinated, verifiable, and authentic data on all aspects of the education sector in Nigeria, which is critical for planning.
The policy also captures all teachers in Nigeria, their qualifications, training support received by all pupils and students in primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions, gender, and exam grades, among others.
He said the initiative would guide Federal and state interventions for teachers’ training and development and overall support.
According to him, it will also provide data on gender ratio ( boys and girls), their specific learning needs, and who is in school or who has dropped out based on daily monitoring with year- by- year reporting.
“There will be a dedicated portal/ dashboard in the Federal Ministry of Education, offices of state governors, and local government chairpersons, which will host and disseminate this information for the Federal Government, states, and local governments to monitor in real- time.
“This new architecture will enable the government to track the progress of students, thus having a clear data- driven mechanism for interventions, especially concerning out- of- school children, girls, and those with specific learning disabilities, among others.”
Meanwhile, the Federal
Ministry of Education is implementing the policy through the activities of four of its agencies.
A statement made available by presidential spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, yesterday, explained that there were, already, about two million beneficiaries.
The statement also read: “The system- wide policy will further enhance the education and training of the nation’s out- of- school children”, adding that under the teachers’ development programme, “the Federal Ministry of Education will support and train teachers in digital skills to facilitate the use of technology in classrooms. This is expected to bring technology and digitisation to teachers and learners at all levels of education.”
The President has also approved a National Framework, designed to provide the appropriate skills for each level of education that will result in the empowerment of generations of Nigerians with the required aptitude for the evolving needs of the global economy of the 21st century.
This framework is expected to address gaps, quality of education, and unemployment concerns as students will acquire certain skill sets, in addition to general knowledge.