The Federal Government has commended the Catholic Church for its collaborative efforts to ensure functional education in Nigeria.
Prof. Tahir Mamman, Minister of Education, gave the commendation at the 4th National Catholic Education Summit, organised by the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria (CSN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
The theme of the summit was, “Global Compact on Education in the Nigerian Context”.
It was an effort by the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria to galvanise effective collaboration towards ensuring academic excellence and inclusivity in the country.
Mamman, represented by Dr Claris Ujam, a Director in the ministry, said that the summit came at a time when many programmes, projects and strategies put in place by government at all levels were already yielding fruits.
“I commend the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria for organising this summit.
“This summit underscored the Church’s commitment in collaborating with the government in ensuring academic excellence, as well as quality and functional education delivery in Nigeria.
“This shows that if we continue to work together as stakeholders in the education sector, remarkable achievements that will reform the sector to meet the demands and challenges of the 21st century will be recorded.
“In view of the above, the Federal Ministry of Education under our leadership developed a strategic plan captioned education for renewed hope, ” he said.
According to the minister, the Nigerian Education Sector Roadmap 2023 to 2027 contains practical, problem-solving and realistic approaches across thirteen thematic areas outlined to allow for concurrent implementation.
In his keynote address, Prof. Jean-Paul Niyigena from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium reflected on the focus of the contemporary missions of Catholic education in Africa.
Niyigena commended Africa and Nigeria, in particular, for the desire to embracing Western education within the region.
He said that education, being one of the achievements of European missionaries in Africa, was a crucial link between evangelisation and schooling, adding that it was yielding good results in the region.
“It is not surprising that Africa has given immediate and significant attention to Pope Francis’s Global Compact on Education.
“Several elements explain this spontaneity and enthusiasm from the Church in Africa.
“Africa has the desire to take charge of itself and to change its status from dominated to free people, and the Church in Africa believes in education, ” he said. (NAN)
