Minister Tahir Mamman explained to Doha News that his ministry is tackling the needs for technological upskilling and violent attacks against the country’s institutes and students.
During the Qatar Economic Forum panel Prioritising Education on Wednesday, Nigeria’s Education Minister discussed how his country’s president is addressing the challenges in accessing education.
Minister Tahir Mamman explained that education is a key priority for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He added that Nigeria is engaging with regional and international partners to ensure the country’s educational challenges are addressed.
In March, during the Nigerian President’s official visit to Qatar, the countries inked several agreements and memorandums of understanding – including within the field of education.
Speaking exclusively to Doha News after the panel talk, Minister Mamman said, “We are here (in Qatar) as a follow up” to the earlier inked agreements.
“The agreement signed contains a number of things which are beneficial to the (Nigerian) education sector,” he added.
He added that Nigeria’s government has a heightened “sense of urgency” when it comes to bettering education for the country’s overall development.
He also discussed his country’s strategies for exploring how to increase upskilling within the education systems. He told Doha News that Nigeria’s teachers are the “drivers of the system and they need a lot of upskilling.”
He also mentioned the importance of the wider use of automation within the educational setting, including increasing national skill sets in artificial intelligence and robotics.
Nigeria’s education ministry also recognises the ever-changing nature of today’s world. Minister Mamman added that colleagues within the ministry also need to adapt their skills to the demands of the future.
Students negatively impacted due to attacks on education were also highlighted during his panel talk. According to a 2023 survey of northeastern Nigeria’s Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe states by the International Organization for Migration, at least 2,295,534 people from 471,346 households are internally displaced.
Nigeria’s education minister told Doha News that his country has established a national security and safety response centre to counter violent attacks on education.
“This brought on board all the security agencies of the country and they are connecting with all the schools in Nigeria. We set up a centre in the federal capital, Abuja… The schools are to connect with that centre if there is any information about potential attacks, the security can respond very quickly,” Mamman added.
In March, Qatar’s Education Above All Foundation announced the successful completion of the Improving Access to Education for Conflict-Affected Children in Northeast Nigeria initiative.
In collaboration with the International Rescue Committee, EAA launched the two-year initiative to combat the rates of out-of-school children (OOSC) in northeastern Nigeria, particularly in the states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.
As many as 21,589 young people between the ages of 7 to 14 have benefited from receiving instruction at the 643 non-formal education centres established within community primary schools.
