EU to invest €5.4 million euros on teachers’ training in Nigeria 

.Northwest backward in education, jigawa Gov. laments

The European Union has pledged to invest an additional €5.4 million euros in building the capacity of teachers in Nigeria.

The body said the move was in line with its commitment to crash the high number of
out-of-school children in the North West region of Nigeria by improving access to quality education and empowering youths in the region.

EU Commissioner for International Partnerships, Jutta Urpilainen, made the disclosure in Abuja at the official launch of the €4O million intervention programme on education and youth empowerment in the North West through the Global Gateway initiative.

She said the additional fund was to ensure that teachers get the necessary and upgraded skills and learning to nurture students with the requisite knowledge to become an army of solutions to the many challenges confronting Nigeria and the continent in general.

She said: “Actually, this component is complemented by a €5.4 million euros separate programme that we signed today, which is dedicated to teachers aiming to build their resilience and capacity in challenging environments. We have to remember that there is no education without teachers and that’s why we also have to invest in teacher training.

“The third objective of our programme is really that it empowers youths with the skills they need, providing vocational education as promoting behavioural change campaigns to challenge harmful social norms and empower girls.”

Urpilainen further added that the EU was equally out to provide vocational education and training for Nigerian youths to equip them with the necessary skills to excel in the labour market.

“This ambitious programme launched today has been designed with Nigerian authorities to ensure the ownership and an adequate response to the local needs. The EU is not only targeting the youth through this specific programme, it is also bringing the youth to the driving seat and this is why as the EU, we set up the Youth Sounding Board, also here in Nigeria, as well as in many countries, to make sure that what we do is for the youth but also by the youth”.

“We have to include young people in the decision making; we have to create spaces and structures where young people feel that they are visible and they watch this and this is precisely what the European Union is doing,” she said.

Urpilainen noted that Nigeria was not only the economic powerhouse on the continent and the most populous country in Africa, but also a strategic partner of the EU in the West African region.

While describing education as the most transformative sector with ability to change the fortunes of a country, she noted that the programme would focus on lifting out of school children off the streets to get the required education, especially girls, through various components aimed at achieving one objective — access to quality education and youth empowerment.

She said: “Education is the most transformative sector in which we can invest and it is the cornerstone for creating resilient societies and finding solutions to the biggest challenges of our time.

“So the EU investment on access, skills and quality education and youth empowerment in Northwestern Nigeria brings actually all these different components together. It will be deployed in Northwest Nigeria.

“The programme, which we are launching today, supports access to education for out of school children with a specific focus on bringing and keeping girls in schools.”

Speaking on behalf of the governors of the North West zone, Governor Umar Namadi of Jigawa State, who appreciated the EU for helping the region tackle the menace of
l children, said they were committed to making education in their respective states a priority.

Namadi disclosed that governors of the region had decided to invest heavily in the sector.

He said: “The Northwestern states have the highest population in the country. We are more disadvantaged when it comes to education; so this support is coming at the right time.

“For each of us, education is a priority and we have decided collectively and individually to invest in education and we are ready to change the narrative in the next four years.

“This support has come at the right time and I assure you that this support will go a long way in helping us to revamp education in our various states.”

On his part, Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, warned that any attempt to downplay education would cost the country a fortune in terms of welfare and security.

“If our youths are not properly catered for, trained and empowered, we are toying with the future of the country. Not catering for them will allow poverty to grow, insecurity to foster,” the minister said.

Mamman, who urged state governors to prioritise education and youth empowerment, disclosed that the soon to be released education sector roadmap covers the same objectives of the EU in revamping the sector.

“Our focus is shifting to basic education, out of school children, adolescent girls who need to be trained and empowered.

“Our government is ready to commit 25 per cent of the budget on education. All the President needs, according to him, are policies that will justify that budget and that is what we are working on,” Mamman explained.