FG to introduce skills development, acquisition into basic education

The Federal Government said on Tuesday that it planned to introduce courses on skills development and acquisitions at the basic education level.

Tahir Mamman, the minister of education, said this at the quarterly citizens and stakeholders’ engagement briefing by the federal ministry of education in Abuja.

According to him, the ministry aims to produce a highly skilled and educated workforce, equipped with entrepreneurial skills to break the cycle of poverty and guarantee sustainable economic growth and global competitiveness.

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“It is common knowledge that we have a learning crisis at basic education levels. In primary and secondary schools, there is a learning crisis, students can’t think and collaborate among themselves. There is also a problem of digital literacy; that is why we have so many out of school.

“In addressing this, we will be introducing skills into primary and secondary schools. The only way we can trace the problem of learning crisis is to introduce skills. We need students that can think, we need applied knowledge at that stage.”

The minister said the ministry has produced a draft/framework of required national skills which would be ready by July.

He also disclosed that teachers were being educated, to empower them to deliver as required.

According to the minister, the ministry was also building a reliable database for the education sector that would keep track of all activities of schools across the country

“How many students do we have in school, what is the condition of all schools, what is the infrastructure in each school, who are our teachers, how many do we have, are they receiving support? We need to know.”

Speaking also, Yusuf Sununu, the minister of state for education, said the deployment of technology in education has become mandatory to address the learning crisis at basic education levels.

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Sununu said the ministry’s utmost focus was on ensuring credible, timely and reliable education data at all levels, reducing the number of out-of-school- children in Nigeria, and promoting skills development and acquisition at all levels.