The Transforming Education Pre-Summit was held in UNESCO from 28th to 30th June, 2022. For three days, high-level representatives of the International Community as well as more than 140 Ministers and 30 Vice Ministers gathered at UNESCO headquarters to discuss the necessity to ensure that every human being has a decent and quality education. Given the major dynamics that are at play in today’s world, this pre-summit presented a unique opportunity to “harness the evolving discussions on transforming education, elaborate initial content and establish a shared vision and suggested actions for the summit, and generate greater momentum in the lead up to September.”
It should be recalled that, in the framework of the United Nations Secretary General’s Report on “Our Common Agenda”, released in 2021, the Transforming Education Summit has been scheduled for September, 2022, to renew global engagements toward the Educational goals and targets of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, as well as to take stock of efforts to recover the learning losses related to the COVID-19 Pandemic. This Pre-Summit held in UNESCO, is a Ministerial level meeting in preparation for the main Summit to be held New York during the 77th UN General Assembly.
Nigeria was represented at the Pre-Summit by the;
Honorable Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Andrew David Adejo,
Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Nigeria to UNESCO, H. E. Dr. Hajo Sani, OON
Executive Secretary (TETFund), Sonny S.T Echono
Executive Secretary – National Universities Commission, Rasheed Adamu Abubakar
Deputy Executive Secretary – National Universities Commission, Maiyaki J Christopher
Basic Education – Federal Ministry of Education, Folake Olatunji-David, Director
Federal Ministry of Education, Olagunui Idowu Lateef, SG, NATCOM UNESCO
Federal Ministry of Education, Khadijat Liman, SDG 4 Coordinator
Technical Assistant to the Hon. Minister of Education, Mahmud Muhammad
Chief, Education Section – UNICEF Nigeria, Saadhna Panday-Soobrayan
Adviser, Permanent Delegation of Nigeria to UNESCO, Dr. Aderemi Oladele
Throughout the pre-summit, the Nigerian Delegation participated in meetings and conferences. Notably, on 28th June, at the Ministerial Roundtable, whose objective was to share leadership and practical examples from countries where interventions are working at scale to address the learning crisis. The Honorable Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, participated and coordinated the Session with the theme “The Time is Now: Addressing the Global Learning Crisis with Foundational Skills.” The Honorable Minister presented on Nigeria’s efforts to improve foundational literacy and numeracy acquisition, including good practices and he also shared Nigeria’s experiences regarding classroom- and system-level learning assessments. In addition, Nigeria’s Ambassador and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO, H.E. Dr. Hajo Sani, represented the Honorable Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, at the Session on “Media and Information Literacy and Digital Competencies: Networks, Tools, Empowerment for Learning Transformation.” The event was aimed at advancing the dialogue related to digital capacity building specifically in the areas of media and information literacy.
It also offered a broader platform for the youths, students and teachers to take part in the dialogue with international stakeholders. The involvement of the diverse actors across the world proved to be an eyeopener in understanding the issues currently plaguing the education systems, especially due to Covid-19; and conceivable solutions that could be implemented in order to tackle those problems.
This Pre-Summit indeed set the stage for the culminating official Transforming Education Summit, to be held in New York, in September 2022. In the light of the rich debate, contributions and interventions of those three days in Paris, the upcoming summit will present the occasion for international stakeholders to take concrete and common actions for transforming education across the world.
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