The Federal Government has expressed readiness to partner with Google global services to reach out to and educate 56 million out-of-school children in Nigeria.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo stated this on Thursday when he received on a courtesy visit to the Presidential Villa, a delegation from Google Global Services in the United States.
According to him, building a partnership with Google will help use technology to make it easier for girls, in particular, to go to school; adding that the mandate of the Buhari-led government on education remains crucial.
“So, the question really is how we can use technology to make it easier for girls, in particular, to go to school, because if we somehow bring education to their doorsteps, it might take care of some of the problems around taking them out of their home environment.
“For us, our education mandate is so crucial,” he added.
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Prof. Osinbajo added that the Federal Government is partnering with different stakeholders with the aim of addressing the out-of-school children and the girl child education issues.
“It is an interesting partnership – business, government and civil society working together. We are already looking forward to a lot of the great work that will be done.”
Speaking on behalf of the Google delegation, Mr Doron Avni, the firm’s Government Affairs and Public Policy Director described Prof. Osinbajo as an excellent partner whose support had enabled the organization record remarkable success in Nigeria.
According to him, “Obviously, we have an excellent partner here who has been doing God’s work, it is thanks to leading partners like him that we are able to be helpful in communities in which we operate.
“We had made a pledge to train 10 million people in Africa by 2022, I am happy to report to you that so far we have trained more than 5 million people. Most important is the fact that out of those 5 million, 3 million are Nigerians.
“With the collaboration that we have with the Ministry of Education, we have now integrated some of Google’s curriculum on online safety into the school’s curriculum. So, we will be reaching 56 million students in Nigeria this year.”
He then added that the company’s target of training up to 10 million people in Africa by 2022 was possible.
