FME UNESCO deepen partnership to advance Tinubu’s education transformation
By Uji A Iliyasu, Abuja
The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, has called for deeper collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) to advance President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s education transformation agenda.
Dr Alausa made the call in Abuja while receiving the newly appointed UNESCO Country Representative to Nigeria, Professor Isaiah Barreto Da Rosa, on a courtesy visit, during which both sides discussed ways to strengthen cooperation across key areas of Nigeria’s education reform programme.
Highlighting progress recorded under the Tinubu administration, the Minister disclosed that more than one million out-of-school children had returned to the classroom in the past 20 months, while almost 6.7 million girls had benefited from interventions designed to improve access to, and retention in, school.
He also called for a more balanced approach that sustains the gains made in girl-child education while paying greater attention to the needs of boys, insisting that Nigeria’s human capital development must leave no child behind.
Dr Alausa explained that the government’s reform programme rests on six priority areas: Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), STEM education, the reintegration of out-of-school children, data and digitalisation, girl-child education, and quality assurance. He noted that significant investment was going into skills development, technology and teacher capacity, with reliable data increasingly deployed to identify needs, target interventions and measure outcomes.
On teacher development, the Minister welcomed UNESCO’s technical support and cited the Ministry’s Accelerated Teacher Professional Programme, which targets one million in-service teachers. He also acknowledged UNESCO’s contributions to TVET assessment, digital transformation, education for peace, and media and information literacy, adding that partnerships would be most effective when they reinforced programmes already established by the Nigerian government.
Speaking earlier, Professor Da Rosa reaffirmed UNESCO’s commitment to supporting Nigeria’s reform efforts, describing the organisation as a technical partner ready to provide expertise in areas identified by the country. He recalled UNESCO’s presence in Nigeria dating back to the 1960s and outlined its work in TVET, teacher development, education for peace, science, culture, communication and information.
The UNESCO Country Representative commended the Ministry’s progress in digitising education data and expressed readiness to deepen cooperation on 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 various states and reached over 1.7 million students, adding that the organisation’s specialised institutes remained available to provide further expertise.
Reaffirming Nigeria’s commitment to the partnership, Dr Alausa assured the UNESCO representative that the Ministry would continue working closely with the organisation to deliver practical results under the Tinubu administration’s education reform agenda. He stressed that the government remained committed to mobilising domestic resources and leveraging strategic technical partnerships to improve access, strengthen quality, and equip both boys and girls with the knowledge and skills required to contribute meaningfully to Nigeria’s development.