A multinational smartphone manufacturer, TECNO, has collaborated with the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) to further bolster the “Nigeria Learning Passport” program, which aims to provide children and young people in Nigeria, especially those living in underserved and remote locations, access to high-quality education. The Digital Learning platform is an endeavour developed to modernize the nation’s Educational System leveraging Technology to guarantee standard and inclusive education. UNICEF’s representative in Nigeria, Cristian Munduate, said working with TECNO will further bring the objective of ensuring that all children in Nigeria have access to Education and are well-equipped to create better futures, closer to reach.
Like many other African countries, Nigeria struggles with an Epidemic of out-of-school children . According to UNICEF data from 2022, Nigeria is among the nations with the highest percentage of total out-of-school children worldwide (18.3 million children). One major factor contributing to such a situation is insecurity. Efforts to address this educational crisis was what led to the establishment of the Nigeria Learning Passport program in 2022 by the Federal Ministry of Education and UNICEF. This initiative was in line with UNICEF’s global education policy, which was developed in 2018.
Over 15,000 curriculum-aligned learning resources is available.
The initiative will extend to include offline Curriculum for 50,000 children in remote and economically deprived regions by 2024 with the goal of further closing the educational disparity and improving the quality of education. It is anticipated that the collaboration with Tecno will accelerate this development by fortifying the creation of content, simplifying the acquisition and upkeep of technical devices, and offering instructors expert training. Notably, the initiative has shown notable development, reaching 19 states in Nigeria and registering almost 888,000 users—making Nigeria the country with the second-highest participation rate worldwide.
Learning Passport seeks to guarantee that no kid is left behind in their quest for an education by bridging the educational gap for underprivileged kids such as those who are homeless, impoverished, or impacted by conflict. Students who don’t have dependable Internet Access can still take advantage of the instructional materials given its dynamic aspect of the platform accessible both online and offline. This function is particularly relevant in remote and conflict-affected areas where internet access is limited. More than 15,000 curriculum-aligned learning resources in a variety of regional languages are available for free to students, educators, and parents.
NITDA has launched ‘Digital Literacy for All’ initiative.
Similarly, the government have revealed plans to develop the National Digital Learning Platform (NDLP) which aims to offer a more complete e-learning solution. Although the NDLP’s exact features and functionalities are still being developed, it is anticipated to address some of the NLP’s shortcomings. These include offering a greater selection of educational resources, possibly including materials for postsecondary education; offering sophisticated functions for individualised learning and progress tracking; and incorporating with the learning management systems that are currently in use by educational institutions.
In keeping with President Tinubu’s priority area of reforming the Economy to deliver sustainable and inclusive growth, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has also launched the innovative ‘Digital Literacy for All’ initiative, which aims to bridge the digital gap. The initiative seeks to guarantee that every Nigerian has access to Digital Literacy and ensuring that no Nigerian is left behind in our ever changing digital world. It is specifically aimed at helping the country achieve its mid-term goal of reaching 70 percent digital literacy by 2027.
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At the state level, certain state governments have also implement comparable initiatives. These include the Lagos State Government’s EKOEXCEL (Excellence in Child Education and Learning) initiative, which aims to transform public primary schools through the use of digital technology; the Kwara State Government’s KwaraLEARN program, which aims to improve public primary education through the use of technology; and the Kaduna State Government’s Learning Management System (LMS), which was developed to support education through digital platforms and promotes continuous learning within the state.