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From Agaju Madugba, Katsina
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says some 12 million Nigerian children are expected to have access to the Nigeria Learning Passport (NLP) by 2025.
The NLP is a digital learning platform with online, mobile, and offline capability that enables continuous access to learning, according to UNICEF, allowing learners and teachers to easily adopt it as their management system or use it to complement learning and existing digital learning platforms.
The platform which is being currently launched in states across the country is facilitated by UNICEF in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Education and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE).
Speaking at the launch in Katsina, the UNICEF National Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant, Babagana Aminu, said that, “we plan to reach every Nigerian child over time with the NLP but in the short-term, out target is to reach 4.5 million learners by 2023 and 12 million by 2025.”
“Additionally, 30,500 teachers and school leaders are being trained on the use of the NLP and on how to integrate technology in classroom instructional practice.
“Children, youth, teachers, and parents can access a digitalised curriculum providing instructional and supplementary learning materials in all core curricular subjects for Primary 1-6, JSS1- JSS3, and SS1-SS3.
“The content is offered in English and the Nigerian languages of Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba.
“The offline version of the Learning Passport will provide an opportunity for learning to students who live in places with intermittent or no internet connectivity, locations where children find themselves unable to access quality education.”
According to Aminu, the platform makes learning possible even outside the confines of a school which he noted, will help address the spiralling numbers of school-age children unable to learn, “especially in states where insecurity hinders access to schools.”
“All that a learner needs to access the NLP is an internet enabled device such as a smartphone or tablet with a web browser to register on the platform to access a variety of high-quality learning content aligned to the curriculum,” he said.
