In commemoration of this year’s Day of African Child, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has stressed the need to reimagine and rethink education to meet global standards.

Education Specialist, Babagana Aminu, who disclosed this during a visit to Ladoje Nursery and Primary School, Orile-Agege, Lagos, said the new learning App, Nigerian Learning Passport (NLP) recently deployed for primary and secondary school students, is bridging gaps and changing the narrative of education in the country.

UNICEF, during the visit, held in collaboration with Lagos State Ministry of Education, said the agency would deploy an offline hub, a super computer in a box containing contents of the learning App in 150 schools across the country.

Aminu explained that the NLP is a virtual learning platform that provides free access to educational contents developed by Microsoft, with support from UNICEF.

He added that the application could be programmed online, on mobile or offline and could be deployed in hard-to-reach areas where the internet is not on ground.

Noting that digital learning offered increased access to quality education for students, the UNICEF chief said the initiative was engendered by COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in schools closure forcing over 50 million children out of school.

“The offline does not require internet access because it comes with all contents and can be deployed to schools. In the next few weeks, we are deploying in 150 schools across Nigeria to demonstrate how offline can be achieved.

“There are about 15,000 different lessons, which comprise English, Mathematics, Basic Science, Business Studies, Basic Technology, Computer Science, Professional Soft Skill, Vocational Training, Chemistry, Biology and others,” he added.

Aminu explained that the contents are in English and the three basic Nigeria languages, to enable children with different language backgrounds to choose the contents they can consume.

Director, Policy, Planning, Research and Statistics, Lagos State Ministry of Education, Dr. Afolabi Sunday, said the state government is committed to equipping schools at all levels with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) gadgets.

Sunday said the idea was to ensure that students get familiar with modern learning technology so as to meet current trends.

He said the ministry is partnering with UNICEF to ensure that tablets are provided in schools, while training is carried out both at local government and state levels.

Sunday said: “The Lagos State government is doing a lot in this regard, virtually all our secondary schools have ICT labs and we will continue to do more to cover all ground.

“We also expose them to e-learning like the NLP, EkoExcel and other packages to ensure that our students are learning and using ICT gadgets,” he noted.

UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Cristian Munduate and Communication Officer, Blessing Ejiofor, stressed the need for stakeholders to embrace NLP to reduce the number of out of school children in the country.

Munduate said digital technology provides a platform to innovate and seek ways for inclusive quality education for all children.

Ejiofor, on her part, noted that the sector is faced with challenges such as poor access to quality learning and low domestic spending on education, resulting in limited school infrastructure and qualified teachers, high level poverty and social norms not supportive of education, especially for girls.

“More than 10 million children are not in school at the primary level. For those in school, the quality of learning is poor; 75 per cent of primary school age pupils are unable to read with understanding or solve a simple mathematics problem.”

Ejiofor added that UNICEF has provided 780 schools in hard-to-reach areas and rural schools with 13,500 tablets, 1,000 smart rechargeable projectors and 780 Airtel Internet routers.

The UNICEF chief said since inception, the NLP has provided access to quality teaching and learning resources to about 280,000 learners, teachers, parents and young people.

Ladoje Nursery and Primary School Orile-Agege is one of the public schools where the NLP has been deployed.