The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to tackling the growing challenge of out-of-school children through the adoption and expansion of non-formal education programmes aimed at job creation, youth empowerment and skills development.
Minister of Education, Dr Olatunji Alausa, disclosed this during a special plenary session moderated by Prince Edward at the ongoing Education World Forum in London.
The session focused on the importance of non-formal education, soft skills acquisition and industry collaboration in improving employability and wellbeing among young people.
Other panellists at the session included Paul Calandra, Raquel Teixeira and Andrea Chakma.
Speaking at the event, Alausa said the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu remains focused on using informal and non-formal education to empower millions of out-of-school children and vulnerable youths across the country.
This was contained in a statement on Wednesday signed by Ikharo Attah, Special Adviser on Media and Communications to the Minister of Education.
According to Alausa, the Federal Ministry of Education has introduced several initiatives targeted at bridging literacy gaps, expanding vocational opportunities and integrating marginalised groups into the economy.
‘What we are doing in Nigeria is because we have a lot of out-of-school children, we have to find a way that we can quickly get them a kind of non-formal education,’ the minister said.
He explained that the government has developed an Accelerated Basic Education Programme with a separate curriculum tailored towards helping out-of-school children catch up with conventional learning standards.
‘We’ve created a separate curriculum for them called accelerated basic education programme which ties them to what they should be learning in school,’ he stated.
The minister added that the government is also prioritising Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) as a critical tool for equipping young Nigerians with employable and entrepreneurial skills.
‘We’ve heavily focused on technical vocational education, which is still a form of formal education but in a non-formal setting to give people that have gone to school other skill sets that they can use to benefit themselves and benefit their community,’ he said.
Alausa further noted that entrepreneurial and innovation training has now been infused into different levels of education to ensure students acquire practical business and leadership skills.
‘We have also now infused what we call entrepreneurial training in these kids. Whatever level of courses they are studying, they go through our entrepreneurship, innovation business certification to equip them with the skills they need to function and do things differently,’ he added.
He also highlighted the government’s growing focus on digital literacy and technology-driven education to prepare youths for future opportunities in the digital economy.
Among the major programmes highlighted by the minister were the tuition-free TVET initiative, the National Policy on Skills Development, nationwide mass literacy and adult education programmes, as well as the Almajiri and Out-of-School Children Education initiative aimed at integrating traditional Quranic education with vocational and life skills training.
According to him, the overall objective of the reforms is to equip Nigerian youths with relevant present-day and future skills that would enable them to contribute meaningfully to national development.
‘The whole goal of what we are doing here is to really get them the skills – skills for the present and skills for the future. We are also looking at the other special abilities our teeming youths have,’ he said.
The minister also commended the Duke of Edinburgh for visiting Nigeria in November 2025 and acknowledged Nigeria’s participation in the Duke of Edinburgh International Award Foundation.