International Youth Day: NGO advocates youth empowerment through inclusive education
International Youth Day: NGO advocates youth empowerment through inclusive education
Education
By Lilian Okoro
Lagos, Aug. 10, 2019 (NAN) The Strategy for Mentoring Initiative and Leadership Empowerment (SMILE), on Saturday canvassed youth empowerment through reformation of the education system to become more inclusive.
Mrs Bimpe Bamgbose-Martins, President, SMILE, made the call at a programme organised by United Nations Information Centre (UNIC) in collaboration with SMILE, an NGO, to mark the “2019 International Youth Day” in Lagos.
The theme of the programme was: “Transforming Education.”
Bamgbose-Martins said there was need to create and improve on entrepreneurship education to enable youths discover and leverage on their creative and innovative skills.
She said education was a ‘development multiplier’ that played a critical role in accelerating progress across all 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
According to her, there are no white-collar jobs anywhere in Nigeria and if there are; they are not sufficient for the teaming youth population.
“So it becomes pertinent that entrepreneurship education is stepped up to serve as alternatives to youths to empower them to become more relevant to themselves and to the nation.
“It is evident that the United Nations acknowledges the role and benefits of the active participation of young people in development and in the attainment of the 2030 agenda.
“It is still apparent that we must continue to make advocacy to our government as well as the private sector to take a cue from the United Nations by recognising the positive contributions of youths to development,” she said.
Mr Ronald Kayanja, Director, UNIC Lagos, advised youths to continue to explore and deploy their unique abilities to provide innovative ideas and alternatives to development challenges.
Kayanja said a major crisis and challenge in the world today was the teaming population of the young people without jobs.
According to him, youths constitute over 70 per cent of the Nigeria population, stressing that greater number of them are unemployed.
“If a country does not deal with the issue of youths, it may face revolutions and conflicts around the world because when a country creates agitated young people who have nothing to do; they can be a danger to the nation.
“On the contrary, young people who have something to do are assets to the economy and can contribute to economic growth and development.
“In Nigeria for instance, where there is over 70 per cent of young people, it calls for concern to pay more attention to them.
“As the future leaders, young people must commit to lifelong learning, as this is integral to the success, sustainability and survival of all our organisations,” Kayanja said.
Mr Adefala Alaba, Chief Executive Officer, Voice for the Deaf, called for the transformation of the education system to make it more inclusive, accessible and relevant to today’s world.
“There is need to revise the school curriculum and education system to be disability-inclusive such that people with disabilities in the society will be given recognition,” he said.
He added that people with disabilities should be allowed to attend the same school with others in the society, while facilities to aid their learning like interpreters among others would be provided. (NAN)
LUC/ENN/SA
Edited by Edwin Nwachukwu/Salif Atojoko
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