UNESCO backs Osinbajo’s new organisation to transform education through innovation

By BASHIR ADEFAKA

It was learned on Monday that the UNESCO International Institute for Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean (IESALC) is providing support for Professor Yemi Osinbajo’s newly formed organisation named, Future Perspectives, partnering to launch the “Innovation to Transform Education Training” (ITET) in Nigeria.

This was contained in a statement sent to The DEFENDER by Media Office of the immediate past Vice President, dated 31st July 2023.

According to the statement, Future Perspectives, a non-profit co-founded by the Immediate Past Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, GCON, will work with the UNESCO agency with the aim to equip young educational stakeholders with skills of innovation, policy and project implementation to support their role as changemakers, capable of developing and implementing their own initiatives, as well as other collective efforts to transform education now and for future generations.

With a keen focus on Africa, the Organisation is convinced that in shaping the Future of the World, the voices of Africa’s youth must be prominently woven into global conversations, their participation and activism will not only create a profound impact within the region but also bring forth the invaluable perspectives of Africa to the global stage.

This collaboration with UNESCO serves as the springboard of personal initiatives Prof. Osinbajo would be working on since leaving office in May 2023 and as he stated in the past, “education must respond to the dynamism, speed of development and massive changes in society, and educators must be trained to understand the skills required to take full advantage of a world dependent on technology.”

This project is part of the capacity-building component of the United Nations Global Youth Initiative, a ground-breaking multi-stakeholder global initiative for “Youth to be equipped with policy and project implementation skills to transform education.” The project would also include the UNESCO Better Innovation Better Outcome (BIBO) Academy which focuses on “Youth Empowerment and Leadership”, led by IESALC.

UNESCO is launching the ITET, a first of its kind, as a pilot in Nigeria through Future Perspectives because of Prof. Osinbajo’s continued commitment to ensuring that Nigerian youths have access to quality education, using technology and innovation to be competitive locally and globally.

While the consultation process began in July 2023, the upskilling training provided to ITET’s first cohort will take place in November 2023, gathering 50 young people from diverse sociocultural backgrounds and different connections to education in Nigeria. They include pre-service and in-service education stakeholders who are currently in higher education institutions with education-focused programs, interdisciplinary university students or practitioners who have a crossover interest or projects on education, education practitioners at national, provincial, and local levels, and youth leaders from major youth organizations based at higher education.

Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa and it is on its way to becoming the third most populous country in the world by 2050 and education would have to reinforce youth possibilities to join a labour market undergoing rapid transformation.

This calls for initiatives such as ITET, with a focus on bridging SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure) and addressing young people as both beneficiaries and drivers of sustainable development that leaves no one behind. As an important regional hub, organizers hope the Nigerian pilot will ignite collaborative efforts for the launching of Innovation to Transform Education Trainings in other African countries affected by similar challenges among their youth populations.

As an important regional hub, organizers hope the Nigerian pilot will ignite collaborative efforts for the launching of Innovation to Transform Education Trainings in other African countries affected by similar challenges among their youth populations.

Future Perspectives and UNESCO IESALC are mutually confident that by providing Africa’s young education stakeholders with a seat at the table, ensuring their action space in the field, utilizing their collective power and equipping them with the necessary knowledge, skills and tools, Africans are poised to unleash the incredible change in education that the continent desires.