Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, has said that resolving challenges confronting education would ease the quest to end poverty in Nigeria.
Osinbajo, who delivered the keynote address at Nigeria’s Annual Education Conference 2019 on Thursday in Abuja, said that there was need to invest in relevant education.
The theme of the two-day conference is “Education for Sustainable Livelihoods: A System’s Approach to Strengthening the Sector for Productivity and Global Competitiveness”.
The vice president said that relevant education meant the type of learning that would equip the child with best possible skills – digital and civic, as well as innovative skills.
Osinbajo said that a UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report and the Education Commission’s Learning Generation Report provided important evidence on the impact of education on individual’s earnings and economic growth.
He said that the report found that education reduced poverty and that absolute poverty could be reduced by 30 per cent from learning improvements.
“Responding to the twin challenge, President Muhammadu Buhari made two crucial commitments within the same month.
“On June 12, he declared that the crucial objective of our administration in the second term is to take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty within the next 10 years.
“And on June 20, while inaugurating the National Economic Council, he said that our administration, working with state governments, was committed to enforcing the law on free and compulsory education in the first nine years of a child’s school life.
“So, to resolve the educational challenge is to resolve the poverty challenge; the choices that lie before us are clear – investing in relevant education.
“By that I mean education that will equip the child with best possible skills, digital, civic, and innovative skills, education that equips to function optimally in a world defined by the astonishing developments of the fourth industrial revolution.
“The policy responses led by the Ministry of Education have been thoughtful and robust; the Education for Change Strategy (2018-2022) deserves commendation.’’
He said that through the approach, deliberate actions had commenced in the 10 priority areas.
The vice president listed the key policies to include Out-of-School Children, Youth and Adult Literacy, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics and Technical, Vocational Education and Training and Basic Education.
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