The Nigerian Government says it has suspended foreign training programmes for scholars, opting instead to invest in local training initiatives.
This move aims to promote domestic capacity building and reduce reliance on international training programs.
Nigeria’s Minister of Education, Olatunji Alausa disclosed this while speaking with Journalists on the sidelines of a 3-day conference organised by the British Council titled “Going Global” with the theme ‘Building Sustainable and Relevant Tertiary Institutions and Systems in Africa’ in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
The flagship event brought together education leaders, policymakers, and innovators from around the world to explore the future of international education with 20 African countries participating.
The Minister said the Government will no longer send scholars abroad for training but will rather train them here in Nigeria.
“We’ve just decided, we’ve canceled foreign training for scholars.
“We’ll be spending substantial money on building a simulation lab. We’ll be spending a substantial amount of money on building and developing our universities.
“The amount of money we’re spending to train scholars abroad, we could use it to train 20 people here. We will be training everybody here,” he emphasised.
He said the Nigerian Government will focus on building the capacity of Universities through research and innovation.
“We will unleash capacity in our Universities. We’re going to be spending more money now on research, innovation, and also on welfare, both on our academics and non-academics.
“We will use education to empower our youth. I’ve just spoken about the first component of our six-pillar agenda. The second component will be focusing heavily on technical, vocational, and educational training,” Alausa explained.
In addition, he said, “What we’re going to do here, we have a four-step agenda to this.
“We will now incentivize young Nigerian men and women to go to technical college. They’ll go to technical school to acquire technical knowledge.
“We’ll pay them incentives. We’ll pay for their tuition as a second step and as a third step, a master craft person, when they will get their practical training, we will pay them as well.
“The curriculum will be 80 percent practical on-the-job training and 20 percent didactic. And as they’re finishing, we will also give them entrepreneurial grants. I repeat, entrepreneurial grant, not loan.”
The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr. Richard Montgomery, on his part stated that with the growing African population that may hit 2.5 billion by 2050; Africa needs to build strong and sustainable tertiary institutions that will produce skilled and employable graduates.
“Africa is growing, it has a hugely young population. It’s going to be 2.5 billion people by 2050. So you need to harness the demographic dividend. And we need to work harder to build institutions that are sustainable and resilient.”
Speaking on the partnership with Nigeria Dr. Montgomery said, “The transnational education partnership that we’ve agreed in Nigeria just recently is creating more linkages between Nigerian higher education institutions and UK universities, and we hope in time that it is going to unlock more finance, more expertise, more partnerships between UK institutions and Nigerian institutions.”
In his words, “In 2022, we had about 750,000 overseas students who came to the UK to study in our higher education institutions. And many of them, tens of thousands of them, come from the African continent.”
The UK Prime Minister, International Education Champion, Sir Steve Smith, said, the UK’s international education strategy emphasises the importance of education as a tool for social and economic transformation.
Smith noted that the UK Government’s ambition is to foster strong internationally connected education systems that enable knowledge sharing, innovation, and a welcoming environment for students globally.
“In Africa, this has to include listening to African voices and leaders to develop respectable and equitable UK-Africa partnerships that enhance people-to-people links, that support research collaborations and align educational goals with the evolving needs of society all on the basis of mutual respect,” he added.
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