By Hamid Ayodeji
As part of efforts to equip secondary school students with leadership and problem-solving skills, LEAP Africa in collaboration with Citi Bank Nigeria, recently organised a forum which featured education stakeholders.
The stakeholders deliberated on how to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal on Education.
The forum addressed issues which would drive activities of localising the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) effectively, whilst contributing significantly towards the implementation of an ESD in Nigeria’s education space.
Speaking at the ESD forum held in Lagos, Executive Director, LEAP Africa, Femi Taiwo, said the non-profit organisation was committed to continue working towards supporting the educational space in the country, in order to help Nigeria achieve an improved and effective education system.
This, he explained, was one of the components that gave birth the organisation’s iLEAD programme which was aimed at providing an all-inclusive educational experience that would help underserved youth develop skills, knowledge and confidence to fulfil their potential and transition successfully from high school to higher education.
“Investing adequately into the sustainable development of our secondary school educational structure is enough to have the right volume of impact on the youth which would enhance their capacity to become valuable leaders and solution inventors.
“The reality is, in order to have the adequate amount of education towards an individual, you need to engage such individual at his or her prime, when they are teenagers or youths before they advance into the tertiary level of education.
“Another issue that LEAP Africa is working towards solving is the low number of people that have access to adequate education in the country. One in four Africans go beyond secondary school level.
“If you look at the statistics, this has led to the rise of the unemployment rate of the country as well,” he added.
On her part, Chief Executive Officer, Unveiling Africa, Chizoba Imoka, said, “in order for us to achieve a sustainable effective educational system the country has to acknowledge its black multi-cultural history.”
According to her, the current educational structure does not support, “our African core values, therefore there has to be an unlearning and re-learning process whereby the citizens would be adequately informed, educated and empowered to blossom into their original potentials while being in their through indigenous cultural form.”
Imoka added: “It is when we have gone through this process we can begin to work towards ways we can liberate ourselves whilst catering adequately for our welfare and development.
“In addition, there has to be concrete recommendations and innovation on capacity building. We need to work with a parallel system; like a research centre that is focused majorly on creation of innovations and solutions, to our nation’s problems.
On her part, Knowledge Management Specialist, United Nations Information Centre, Mrs. Bolanle Olumekor said, “achieving inclusive and quality education for all reaffirms the belief that education is one of the most powerful and proven vehicles for sustainable development.
“In addition to improving quality of life, access to inclusive and quality education can help equip citizens with the tools needed to develop innovative solutions to the world’s greatest problems.”
