By Philip Yatai
Kaduna, – The Kaduna State Government has reiterated commitment to mobilising resources for education to improve access to quality learning opportunities for all.
The Commissioner for Education, Hajiya Halima Lawal stated this in a statement in Kaduna on Tuesday, in commemoration of the 2023 International Day of Education with the theme: “To Invest in People, Prioritise Education”.
Lawal said the government would also chart ways for translating commitments and global initiative into action.
According to her, education must be prioritise to accelerate progress towards all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) against the backdrop of a global recession, growing inequalities and the climate crisis.
“Without inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong opportunities for all, countries will not succeed in achieving gender equality and breaking the cycle of poverty that is leaving millions of children, youth and adults behind”.
She called on all lovers of education to support in promoting the use of the Nigeria Learning Passport (NLP) and other innovative approaches.
This, according to her, will ensure that every child has access to basic and quality learning, irrespective of location, gender, and family background.
“The lessons learnt from COVID-19 showed that learning can be promoted outside the physical learning space and Kaduna State is among the pioneer states that embraced digital learning to promote e-learning during the pandemic.
“The use of radio and television to broadcast lessons to students and the development of e-learning website were meant to enhance access and quality learning.
“This effort was complemented by the development, hosting, and subscription of a free online learning resource, the NLP inaugurated on June 30, 2022.
“The initiative is supported by the Federal Ministry of Education with support from UNICEF, Microsoft, Airtel, and other development partners,” she said.
According to Lawal, the NLP is a learning platform with online, mobile, and offline functionality, offering courses ranging from early childhood, play based learning to secondary Math’s, English and Sciences.
She said the platform also provides professional development content from Nigeria and around the world, to support continuous learning.
The commissioner said the adoption of innovation of digital learning in the state came with challenges which were confronted head-on, by collaborative efforts.
“In this collaboration, 5,000 teachers and facilitators were trained on remote digital literacy, use of NLP platform and digital content development.
“UNICEF partnered with the state government and equipped an e-learning studio with modern facilities and recently donated 880 tablets for 40 schools to support the implementation of the NLP.
“We will continue to encourage our NLP Local Government Champions, to reach out to public and private schools to use the Nigeria Learning Passport,” she said.
The Commissioner said the International Day of Education holds annually on June 24, to campaign for better education reforms and improve access to education for all. (NAN
