UNICEF, NOA seek improved learning for youths through digital platforms

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and Lagos State Directorate of National Orientation Agency (NOA) have sought ways to enhance learning for young persons through digital platforms.

They made this known at a two-day media dialogue, which brought together young persons, and select journalists to build their capacity and raise awareness on the benefits and opportunities youths could acquire from various digital platforms.

With various digital platforms available at the disposal of young people, include the Nigeria Learning Passport (NLP), an online offline and mobile digital learning platform that supports learning and skills acquisition for Children and youths as well as the Youth Agency Marketplace (YOMA) and U-report platforms are avenues to connect young people to opportunities for employment, entrepreneurship and social impact.

Speaking at the event, UNICEF Programme Officer, Joannes Yimbesalu said: “We see a lot of resilience from young people. They are very creative and very innovative. There is a need to empower these youths by giving them necessary supports and capacity development to ensure productivity.

For NOA Director, Lagos, Mrs. Adetola Adegboyega, however, charged young persons to explore digital platforms productively and stay focus in life.

“Our youths should be focused and know that there are opportunities here. There are many opportunities for them on the digital space. Social media is not necessarily for Internet scam known as Yahoo Yahoo. There are better things that youths can do online and make legitimate income.”

Director, Policy, Planning, Research and Statistics, Lagos State Ministry of Education Dr. Afoabi Adejare, spoke on the need for parents to encourage their wards to key into available online digital learning platforms such as NLP, Eko Digital, Eko Excel, among others to compliment the existing methods of impacting knowledge.

While UNICEF Communication Officer, Blessing Ejiofor, said the event was aimed at galvanising the media to support advocacy on digital learning solutions with a focus on bridging the digital divide, especially for girls and young people in hard-to-reach communities.