Nigeria, European Union Launch €40m Education Project In Northwest

Federal government, successful concern with the European Union (EU), has inaugurated a National Programme Steering Committee (NPSC) to oversee the €40 cardinal Education and Youth Empowerment successful Northwest Nigeria (EYEPINN) programme.

The programme, which is being implemented successful Jigawa, Kano, and Sokoto States, aims to tackle out-of-school children, facilitate teacher development, and beforehand younker skills acquisition successful the Northwest region.

The committee, chaired by the Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, and co-chaired by the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, volition conscionable annually to supply strategical guidance, with a secretariat handled by the EU Technical Assistance Team (EU-TAT). Also, quarterly method meetings are planned to show advancement closely.

Speaking successful Abuja during the committee’s authoritative inauguration, Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education Abel Enitan praised the EU’s unwavering concern and concern successful Nigeria’s acquisition sector, which has continued to amended access, equity, quality, and strategy resilience.

The Permanent Secretary, represented by the Director of Poly Education and Allied Institutes, Dr Usman Ejeh, said, “The EYEPINN task represents 1 of the astir strategical interventions aimed astatine addressing the persistent challenges of out-of-school children, teacher capableness development, harmless learning environments, and skills acquisition for youths successful Nigeria’s Northwest region.

“The EU’s continued enactment done programmes specified arsenic EYEPINN and Expand, Integrate and Strengthen Systems (EISS), reflects a shared committedness to empowering our young radical and ensuring that each child, irrespective of sex oregon background, tin larn and thrive.”

Highlighting the committee’s relation successful ensuring accountability and integrating results into nationalist policies, helium added, “The committee serves not lone arsenic a level for oversight but besides arsenic a forum for strategical dialog to guarantee that the corporate efforts of each partners are coherent, complementary, and impactful. The occurrence of EYEPINN depends connected however good we collaborate with federal, state, and section governments, moving hand-in-hand with our planetary partners.

“We indispensable guarantee that each Euro invested translates into measurable impact, amended learning outcomes, empowered teachers, safer schools, and a much resilient acquisition strategy that leaves nary kid behind.”

In her remarks, Leila Ben Amor Mathieu, squad person for quality improvement astatine the European Union delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, highlighted the programme’s value arsenic the delegation’s archetypal standalone acquisition initiative.

“This is the EU Delegation to Nigeria’s archetypal task solely connected education. It is our flagship project. We hadn’t had immoderate before. We truly wanted it to beryllium designed successful tune with the ministry and to service the needs of Nigerian people,” she said.

Stating that the task aims to code existing gaps successful basal education, she said, “This is simply a €40 cardinal task that we money done UNICEF, Plan International, DIME, and immoderate method assistance provided to the ministry. We would person loved to adhd secondary education, but we stopped astatine basal education, specifically targeting out-of-school children, nomadic education. We worked with the Quranic schools.”

UNICEF’s Chief of Education, Vanessa Lee, described the programme arsenic timely, “It came astatine a captious clip successful Nigeria’s acquisition betterment advancement to enactment some the Federal and the State Ministries of Education and Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) and State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) successful transforming the acquisition system.”

Country Director of Save the Children International, Duncan Harvey, added, “This is so an important measurement that volition promote and amended the enactment of the wide programme. Every child, nary substance their status, nary substance wherever they are living, nary substance their gender, quality oregon disability, deserves the close to prime basal education.”