UNESCO backs Osinbajo’s initiative to transform education

The UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC) is providing support for former vice president, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo’s newly formed body, Future Perspectives, by partnering to launch the Innovation to Transform Education Training (ITET) in Nigeria.

Future Perspectives, a non-profit co-founded by Osinbajo, will work with the UNESCO agency to equip young educational stakeholders with skills of innovation, policy and project implementation to support their role as changemakers, capable of developing and implementing their own initiatives, as well as other collective efforts to transform education.

With a keen focus on Africa, the organisation is convinced that in shaping the future of the world, the voices of Africa’s youth must be prominently woven into global conversations, as their participation and activism will not only create a profound impact within the region but also bring forth the invaluable perspectives of Africa to the global stage.

In a statement yesterday by Osinbajo’s media office, it stated that the collaboration with UNESCO serves as the springboard of personal initiatives Osinbajo would be working on since leaving office in May 2023 and as he stated in the past, “education must respond to the dynamism, speed of development and massive changes in society, and educators must be trained to understand the skills required to take full advantage of a world dependent on technology.

“UNESCO is launching the ITET, a first of its kind, as a pilot in Nigeria through Future Perspectives because of Osinbajo’s continued commitment to ensuring that Nigerian youths have access to quality education, using technology and innovation to be competitive locally and globally.

“While the consultation process began in July 2023, the upskilling training provided to ITET’s first cohort will take place in November 2023, gathering 50 young people from diverse sociocultural backgrounds and different connections to education in Nigeria.

They include pre-service and in-service education stakeholders who are currently in higher education institutions with education-focused programs, interdisciplinary university students or practitioners who have a crossover interest or projects on education, education practitioners at national, provincial, and local levels, and youth leaders from major youth groups based at higher education.”

As an important regional hub, organisers hope the Nigerian pilot will ignite collaborative efforts for the launching of Innovation to Transform Education Trainings in other African countries affected by similar challenges among their youth populations.

Future Perspectives and UNESCO IESALC are mutually confident that by providing Africa’s young education stakeholders with a seat at the table, ensuring their action space in the field, utilizing their collective power and equipping them with the necessary knowledge, skills and tools, Africans are poised to unleash the incredible change in education that the continent desires.