The Federal government has at the commemoration of 2017 Commonwealth day celebration on Tuesday in Abuja lauded Nigeria’s membership in Commonwealth which it revealed has been impacting positively on Nigeria’s Education sector.
Adamu Adamu,the Minister of Education said at the commemorative event in Abuja that under ‘Commonwealth Scholarship and Fellowship Plan Awards’, which promotes highest standards of intellectual achievement,technical and professional performances, Nigeria has attracted several scholarship sponsored by commonwealth.
He said, “In Decemeber 2015, a total of thiry-eighty(38)postgraduate candidates (Masters and doctorate) were nominated for the 2016/2017 Commonwealth Scholarship from Nigeria.
Also, “In 2015/2016 academic session,the Commonwealth Commission awarded thirteen(13) postgraduates scholarships to qaulified Nigerians for studies in UK Universities,while 2016/2017academic session, sixteen (16) postgraduate scholarship offers were recivrd from common wealth”, Adamu said.
Apart from Commonwealth Scholarship awards,the Minister explained that the Pan-commonwealth Commonwealth consultation on the Commonwealth Education Policy framework which was held in Kenya in May 2016 had also assisted Nigeria in designing it’s strategic education plan to focus on skills relevant for 21st century.
According to Adamu, “The Key focus of the consultation was to assist scaling up investment in education and ensuring that education delivery focuses on equity, lifelong learning,workforce planning and relevance to the skills and jobs of the 21st century.”
It would be noted that the Commonwealth is an association of 52 countries around the world that support each other and share experiences in various filed, to promote and sustain democracy,good governance and development of all member countries.
It has a population of about 2.4 billion people, which constitutes nearly a third of the World’s largest population and are found mostly in Africa, Asia, the North America,the Carribean, the Europe, and the South Pacific.
The theme for this year’s celebration is a “Peace building Commonwelath”, which affirms the Commonwealth charter principles that international peace and security, sustainable economic growth and development and the rule of law are essential to the progress and prosperity of all.
