Education
THE Jigawa Government has inaugurated the Nigeria Learning Passport (NLP), to strengthen learning process among students in the state.
The programme, powered by Microsoft is being implemented in collaboration between the state government, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Global Partnership for Education (GPE).
Mr Saka Adebayo, Education Officer, UNICEF Field Office, Kano, stated this at the inauguration of the programme in Dutse on Thursday.
He said it would provide children, teachers and parents with resources for learning at home and in school.
According to him, NLP is an online, offline and mobile learning platform designed to enhance access to digital learning skills for students, especially during the COVID -19 pandemic.
“I congratulate Jigawa state government and particularly the ministry of education on this creative, and timely digital solution that will increase access to excellent learning for all students.
“This is a partnership with UNICEF, Microsoft and the Global Partnership for Education,” he said.
He added that the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted education, assuring that the learning passport would provide solution to childrens’ education.
“As we all know, education has faced enormous issues across the World. Even before COVID-19, the globe was falling off track in realising SGD4,” he said.
The UNICEF official said at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, sporadic school closures hindered the learning of 50 million students in Nigeria alone and more than two million in Jigawa State.
According to him, frequent attacks on schools, including abduction of children, also complicated the fear of the unknown.
“But together, we’re finding solutions and while nothing will replace the students’ face-to-face interaction with their teachers and peers in classrooms, the learning passport will provide learning opportunities when face-to-face interaction is not feasible or when children need to revise what they’ve learnt in school to bridge the learning poverty gap,” Adebayo added.
He reiterated commitment of the UN agency towards creating initiative to strengthen collaboration with government, development partners and CSOs to ensure that children acquire the right skills to thrive and become nation builders.
Gov Mohammmed Badaru, commended the partners for the initiative, and stressed the readiness of the state government to key into the scheme.
Represented by Commissioner for Education, Dr Lawan Yunusa, the governor said UNICEF has been partnering and assisting the state on viable programmes.
He assured that the state would adopt the NLS as a solution to improve learning outcomes in the state.
The governor said the state government had embraced technology to run its education sector.
Also, the Chairman of the NLP in the state, Malam Abbas Zakar, who is also Director Information and Communication Technology in the state Ministry of Education, said the Federal Ministry of Education has directed states to digitalise all activities of learning in the country.
Zakar said digital learning gadgets were procured and distributed to states using GPE supported grants to encourage transformation of learning and teaching processes.
He said the state government has esrmarked N10 million in 2022, adding that the ministry awarded contract for procurement of gadgets and installation of NLP audio/visual studio.
He said the project has reached 80 per cent completion stage. (NAN)
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Tags: Covid-19 GPE Malam Abbas Zakar Mohammmed Badaru NLP Saka Adebayo UNICEF
