FG to Sweden: Help us integrate skills, tech into education sector

The Federal Government has called on the government of Sweden to help drive its ongoing efforts to integrate technology and skills into the education sector.

The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, made the call at a meeting with the Ambassador of Sweden to Nigeria, Annika Hahn-Englung, in Abuja on Tuesday, March 26, 2024.

Mamman, who also called for the Swedish Government’s support on the development of indigenous languages to aid sound educational development, said it was important to leverage Sweden’s technical expertise.

The minister stated that the presence of Swedish tech companies in education and training is important for Nigeria “because one of the major things this ministry is focusing on now is to bring technology and skills into our education system right from the very early stage of education and we feel it is a very important mechanism tool for learning and teaching.”

He added: “So we’ll be looking at your experiences to see how we can grow from that because what we want is right from primary school we want our students to be exposed to technology and skills so that at that stage they can grow with it and nurture critical thinking capabilities.

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“Right now education is not all about just providing training people for jobs and skills of today, but preparing them to think about the skills of tomorrow and the best way to do that is by nurturing critical thinking capability right at the early stage.

“We will be leveraging on your expertise and experience in that for us to develop our plans and integrate skills and technology into the curriculum at all the levels of our education system in Nigeria.”

Mamman who noted that some pacts had been signed between Nigeria and Sweden in the past, however, stressed the need for both countries to deepen bilateral relationships by committing to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in several areas of partnerships.

Speaking, Hahn-Englung expressed Sweden’s readiness to deepen existing relationships, especially in the area of education.

The ambassador also noted Sweden’s desire to have more students study in her institutions of learning, saying: “We have quite a number of companies especially when it comes to EdTech but then also, we have ideas to see what we can do more together.

“We have many Nigerian students going to Sweden every year. They are very competitive students we have noticed but we will like to see that expand more.”

The Star