FG introduces new education policy named “Every Child Counts’ – Osinbajo

`Every Child Counts’ is the name of new Federal Government’s
education policy, Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has
revealed.

Laolu Akande, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media
and Publicity, Office of the Vice President, in a statement on
Wednesday in Abuja, said Osinbajo made the disclosure in Lagos.

Osinbajo spoke at the 60th Anniversary of Grange School, Lagos,
on Tuesday.

According to the vice president, Nigeria is Africa’s most
populous country; and like the rest of the continent, it is a
nation of young people as half of its population is below the age
of 20.

He said that Nigeria would be the third most populous country in
the world by 2050 and would have a large youth population that
could be a tremendous blessing for economic growth and
prosperity.

Osinbajo, however, said that the population could also be a
problem especially if Nigeria did not plan well and in advance as
extreme poverty further complicated the problem for a country like
Nigeria.

He said there was need to increase school enrolment, adding that
school enrolment had increased in many cases by over 30 per cent in
the last 2 ½ years, largely on account of our school feeding
programme.

Osinbajo said that to eradicate poverty, Nigeria’s education
must equip the youths to be productive as the Federal Government
was working on far-reaching skills-based curriculum on Science,
Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics.

“This is the curriculum for primary and secondary schools.

“The core skills the programme will provide include: (1) Coding
and Computer Programming; (2) Design Thinking and Computer
Generated Imaging, Animation and Graphics Design; (3) Robotics,
Networking and basic engineering applications.

“We have a programme called the N-Power programme and about
3,000 of them are currently being trained in animation skills and
techniques and we found that people take so easily to learn some of
these things.

“In fact, the younger people are, the easier it is for them to
learn all of these technology skills.

“So, we think that to develop the kinds of young people who will
be able to take on the kind of challenges of the 21st century and
get the kind of work that the 21st century is producing already, we
simply have to change the way we teach and what we teach.’’

He said the Federal Government was working in collaboration with
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Oracle Academy,
Microsoft Cisco Academy and IBM.

According to him, they are working with the Federal Government
in developing the curriculum alongside, the Federal Ministry of
Education and the respective states.

The vice president said that the immediate plan was to reach,
with this sort of education, at least 2 million pupils in the first
year.

“The plan also envisions a new classroom structure that permits
the cultivation, expression and early adoption of skills that will
function in the environment that is already being created – the
technology environment that is already being created.

“The next question we asked is, for whom do we plan? The answer
is quite straightforward – it is the Nigerian child.

“Not just the ones in the urban areas or the few that are
privileged to afford decent schooling above the weakened standards
of public schooling generally.

“The real slogan for us is “Every Child Counts” and that is the
name of the policy, which means we have democratised our vision of
a qualitative and relevant education to reach every Nigerian
child.

“Every Child Counts” ensures that all children, especially the
number reported to be out of school now, and in those areas where
children tend to drop out of school much faster, all of them
deserve to get a decent education, all of them must be reached by
this programme,’’ he said.

Osinbajo said he was proud of the way that Grange School had
collaborated with his office in some of the important work it was
doing at the learning centre in Maiduguri.(NAN)