An initiative between the Federal Government l and the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), offering expanded education, training and employment, targeting 20 million Nigerians from ages of 10-24 years, between now and 2030 is in the offing, according to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN.
This is coming as the country appears to have flunked an opportunity to an unnamed country to make millions of others literate under the Revitalizing Adult and Youth Literacy (RAYL). The project was a self-benefitting Funds-in-Trust domiciled with UNESCO to the tune of $6,468,233.
The objective of RAYL was to strengthen National capacities for designing, delivering, evaluating and monitoring quality literacy programmes. The project was designed to make five million adults and youth literate by 2015. The RAYL Project enrolled 5,127, 621 learners, out of which 4,600,770 were made literate in 146 focus local government areas in Nigeria.
In addition, the institutional and individual capacity building activities of the project strengthened the capacities of Federal, State and LGA institutions (NMEC, SAMEs, and NGOs). These included study visit to UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) of senior officials from NMEC, State Agencies for Mass Education (SAMEs) and NFE Training Institutions; over 4,800 facilitators were trained; NFE-MIS established at NMEC and FCT SAME; vocational and life skills training given to over 240 learners through apprenticeship; model community learning centres established in 17 States; centre-based management committees established in all the States..
On Monday, however, Osinbajo spoke of another project in a pre-recorded message delivered at the official launch of the Generation Unlimited (GenU) programme in Nigeria, a global multi-sector partnership that was initially launched in September 2018, in collaboration with over 200 partners. The programme has impacted more than 100 million young people globally through innovations and programmes in more than 40 countries across six continents.
Speaking on the GenU programme, the Vice President said “this program is important because it promises to provide 20 million Nigerians with digital skills, link them to entrepreneurial and other job opportunities and assist them in realizing their full potential.
“Over the next couple of years, we will provide digital learning, employment, entrepreneurship and engagement for and with 20 million young Nigerians. This process is not only significant for our socio-economic development as a nation in the coming years but also provides a learning asset for developing future job growth enabling programmes.”
According to him, “Nigeria has one of the world’s largest young populations. And it bears repeating that our country’s youth are the nation’s present and indeed its future. The cost of failing to invest in them is quite simply, unimaginable.
“So, we are excited to be a part of the ambitious goal of reaching young Nigerians with this opportunity. The work is massive, and we know we cannot achieve this objective without strong partnerships. And so, the Presidency, the relevant Ministries and State Governments will be collaborating with Generation Unlimited Nigeria, the private sector, the international community and our young people themselves to make this a reality.”
The Vice President noted that “GenU Nigeria will have three key components; Digital Skills Development, The Workforce Readiness Programme and Youth Engagement. Youth Employment and especially the empowerment of female entrepreneurs is a major aspect of GenU Nigeria.”
Prof. Osinbajo commended private sector partners such as Airtel, the Tony Elumelu Foundation, Jobberman Nigeria, amongst others for their innovative work with young entrepreneurs throughout the country and for their commitment to GenU Nigeria.
The introduction of GenU Nigeria is in collaboration with State Governors including Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos State; Alhaji Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Kano State; Mr Godwin Obaseki, Edo State, and also development partners such as Mr. Edward Kallon, UN Resident Coordinator. GenU Nigeria has a wide range of Development Partners including the African Development Bank, GIZ, ILO, UNDP, USAID, and private sector organisations.
In Nigeria, the target is to reach 2 million young people aged 10-24years by 2023 and 20 million by 2030 with education, skills training, employment, entrepreneurship, and empowerment.
GenU Nigeria will be implemented in 12 states distributed across the 6 geo-political zones in the country. In the North-west, Kano and Kaduna States; South-west, Lagos and Ogun States; North-east, Borno and Bauchi States; South-east, Ebonyi and Enugu States; North-central, Niger and Benue States and from the South-south, Rivers and Cross River States.
However, Everyday.ng reports that following popular demand for the scale up of the RAYL Project, the Federal Government of Nigeria, in collaboration with UNESCO Regional Office, Abuja, initiated the process for a Second Phase of the project, which was to be information and communication technology (ICT) driven.
Unfortunately, the proposal did not see the light of the day, according to sources in the education sector, because, as one put it,
•NMEC did not see the need for the second phase;
•NMEC did not accompany UNESCO in her drive towards adding value to the lives of the less privileged and making Nigeria a better place to co-exist.
•NMEC made sure the paper approval of RAYL Phase II was never released to UNESCO.
Everyday.ng learnt front an insider, that the RAYL project achieved the following –
•Built the institutional capacity of NMEC, SAME and NGOs
•Established 14 Model Community Learning Centres and 15 mini-model community learning centres in 29 states,
•Made over 4.5 million adult and youth literate
•300 learners graduated in diverse skills through apprenticeship scheme in six States
•452 communities mobilized and had additional learning centres established in all the states
•105 NMEC, SAME and NGOs staff trained in the use of NMEC NFE-MIS Portal
•621 Community Based Management Committee capacity built where most state chairmen are members of NOGALSS
•60 facilitators trained on REFLECT methodology in Anambra state
•Reviewed Literacy by Radio English Primer and translated into four Nigerian languages (Igbo, Hausa, Khana and Yoruba), copied into 100 CDs, printed 10, 000 primer, 2,000 facilitators guide and distributed
•Leveraged funds and partnerships to complement government efforts such as the UNESCO-P&G ($1,600,000) as spinoff project from Procter & Gamble.
•1,300 laptops from Samsung Electronics distributed to fourteen community model-learning centres, NMEC, State Agencies for Mass Literacy, NGOs and a Digital Village Project.
•UNESCO P&G project graduated 60,000 women and girls in Literacy and Skills Development delivered through ICT, in Rivers and FCT.
•UNESCO-P&G Second phase tagged, School Meet the Learners Approach (SMLA) to empower 50,000 Girls and Women in Literacy and Skills Development through the use of Information Communications Technology (ICTs) in Bauchi State on going.
Another document available to this newspaper disclosed that the second phase of the RAYL project would have positively affected the lives of illiterate adults and youth by providing them with the ability to read, write in English, vocational and life skills, increasing their potential for income.
“These impacts will need to be scaled up to cover the remaining 554 LGAs and to accelerate efforts to achieve the SDGs in general and goal 4 target 8 in particular” the document added..
