Lagos State Government has concluded plans to partner with two private firms, Kelv Consult, and Classbox Educational Hub Limited, to boost the use of digital devices and tools for teaching and learning in the state-owned schools.

By the partnership, Kelv Consult will equip the secondary school students from junior to senior class with requisite knowledge and skills in areas such as computer programming, web designing, cyber security and data analysis, while Classbox will provide teachers with a customised digital device and tools, embedded with useful learning materials.

Speaking at the pilot phase of the partnership on Friday, the State’s Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Mr Jamiu Alli-Balogun, stressed the importance of digital classrooms and learning materials in both the urban and underserved communities.

The Federal Ministry of Education (FME) has established a seven-member committee to address bullying incidents in all Nigerian schools. Director, Press and Public Relations, Boriowo Folasade, in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja, said the move reinforces the Ministry’s commitment to student welfare and a safe learning environment.

Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Olatunji Alausa, emphasised the urgent need for effective interventions, citing the psychological impact of bullying on students. The committee, according to the statement would review reported cases and ensure swift action, complementing the 21-member team working on a National Policy on Anti-Bullying.

Alausa reiterated the Ministry’s zero-tolerance stance on bullying, urging school administrators, teachers, parents, and students to support this initiative, maintaining that this aligns with the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Agenda, prioritising education as a driver of national development.

The Federal Government has commenced a comprehensive nationwide on-the-spot monitoring of both public and private schools with a view to strengthening the quality of the system and eliminating institutions established as ‘miracle centres’.

The quality assurance monitoring initiative was directed by the Minister of Education, Dr Olatunji Alausa, in line with the determination of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration towards ensuring that schools operating in Nigeria have minimum facilities and conducive environments for effective teaching and learning.

Deputy Director from the Quality Assurance Department, Federal Ministry of Education, Rukayat Ibrahim, led a team from the Ministry on the on-the-spot assessment to the Redeemers Teap International School, Garki, Abuja, on Tuesday.

Government is seized with reviewing minimum standards for licensing of schools as part of measures to address the sprouting of illegal learning institutions attributed to the shortage of schools. The Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education views partnerships with the private sector as critical in addressing
educational infrastructure.

The country has a shortage of approximately 3 000 schools with highly populated suburbs such as Cowdray Park in Bulawayo, Stoneridge and Caledonia in Harare being the haven for illegal schools. Concerns have been raised over the quality of education produced in "shacks" masquerading as education facilities.

However, Government also recognises that some of the illegal schools have requisite infrastructure that can be upgraded enabling those institutions to be registered. In an interview, Primary and Secondary Education Permanent Secretary Mr Moses Mhike said the ministry will be visiting some of the schools to try and understand why the learning institutions were not registered.

The Rwanda Technical and Vocational Education and Training Board (RTB) has announced plans to construct modern model technical schools in each district, writes Daniel Sabiiti for KT Press.

A total of 30 centres of excellence will be developed, adhering to European and Asian standards. According to Paul Umukunzi, the director general of RTB, construction on some of these schools has already reached 20% completion. At least eight of them are expected to be fully operational by 2026, as funding and master plans have already been secured.

“For instance, work at the Coding Academy in Nyabihu is currently at 20% completion, and the goal is to have the first Centre of Excellence opened by October,” Umukunzi stated. “Another centre, situated in an industrial area, will be funded through a US$7 million grant, with renovation preparations underway. It is expected to open within a year and a half.”

The African Union (AU) Commission Department of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Mauritania UNICEF (AUC-UNICEF-MAURITANIA) has called for adequate investment to achieve meaningful education agenda in Africa.

This is contained in a statement issued by the AU on Sunday, on the sidelines of the High Level Political Dialogue on Financing Accelerated Action on Education and Skills in Africa during the 38th AU Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

It also emphasised the need for AU Member States, and education partners to increase funding for education by implementing concrete actions, to tackle issue of education financing in line with the Nouakchott Declaration. The event seeks to ensure effective implementation of the recommendations by the Nouakchott Declaration: a high-level political dialogue on financing accelerated action on education and skills in Africa for the 21st Century.

The National Coordinator of the 2025 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Awareness Day and former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission,NUC Professor Emeritus Peter Okebukola has described as a significant milestone, Nigeria’s role in the global revolution in Artificial Intelligence.

The inaugural 2025 AI Awareness Day in Higher Education was held on Monday, February 17, 2025, and co-hosted by the Virtual Institute for Capacity Building in Higher Education (VICBHE), National Universities Commission (NUC), National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Okebukola Science Foundation (OSF) and the Association of African Universities (AAU)

The national virtual event brought together 306 participants including heads of regulatory agencies (NUC, NBTE and NCCE), scholars from universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, policymakers, educators, AI practitioners, and stakeholders from across the Nigerian higher education system to explore the potential of AI, share best practices, and contribute to the shaping of national policies that ensure ethical AI deployment.

Over 1,000 Nigerian students will receive first responder skills from a training being organised by the Health Emergency Initiative (HEI) in partnership with TotalEnergies Exploration & Production (E&P), across Lagos, Rivers, and Kwara states.

The programme aims to equip over 1,000 senior secondary school students and teachers with critical first responder skills. Following a rigorous 15-month due diligence and compliance process, TotalEnergies provided funding to HEI, enabling the organisation to expand its lifesaving initiatives to new regions.

The initiative aims to create a culture in which swift and informed action replaces passive observation (taking pictures and videos and posting them on social media) during emergencies by equipping young people and teachers with essential skills such as CPR, first aid, and trauma care.

The Principal, Government Technical College, Iluomoba Ekiti, Mrs Rachael Oludare-Falana, has said individuals are guaranteed economic prosperity if they acquire necessary hands-on skills.

Oludare-Falana, stated this on Thursday, during the matriculation ceremony for 100 newly admitted students of the school. She said, “Technical and vocational education is the best form of education, particularly because it promotes the acquisition of hands-on skills, therefore guaranteeing the economic prosperity of practitioners.”

Also speaking, Chairman, the Board for Technical and Vocational Education, Kayode Babade, said the future belonged to men and women of skills. He enjoined Ekiti residents to encourage their wards and young ones to embrace technical and vocational education to acquire necessary and needed skills.

The Principal, Government Technical College, Iluomoba Ekiti, Mrs Rachael Oludare-Falana, has said individuals are guaranteed economic prosperity if they acquire necessary hands-on skills. Oludare-Falana, stated this on Thursday, during the matriculation ceremony for 100 newly admitted students of the school.

She said, “Technical and vocational education is the best form of education, particularly because it promotes the acquisition of hands-on skills, therefore guaranteeing the economic prosperity of practitioners.”

Also speaking, Chairman, the Board for Technical and Vocational Education, Kayode Babade, said the future belonged to men and women of skills. He enjoined Ekiti residents to encourage their wards and young ones to embrace technical and vocational education to acquire necessary and needed skills.

Kenya has overhauled the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) curriculum, offering thousands of learners a critical lifeline to enrol in market-competitive courses. This also gives East Africa’s biggest economy a chance to increase technical talent to drive its economic transformation agenda.

Marking a watershed moment in the country’s pursuit of skilled workforce development, 151 competency-based curricula have already been approved. For more than 700,000 students from the 2024 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination class, this transformation of technical education is a beacon of hope, as they will not have access to modern and industry-linked courses.

The 15-month intensive review process by the team led by education stalwart Dr David Mwangi, has changed the landscape of technical education in Kenya. This comprehensive reform represents the first unified training framework to be implemented across public and private TVET institutions nationwide.

African universities should decolonise through human and epistemic diversity and internationalisation rather than by adopting a parochial “nativism” and by retreating into epistemic enclaves separate from the rest of the world, says Dr William Mpofu, a researcher at the Wits Centre for Diversity Studies, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

Global engagement that is locally relevant can foster the exchange of knowledge at universities as well as heterogeneity among those promoting and sharing the knowledge, according to Mpofu. “The aim has never been to foster higher education that is disconnected from the international university system – to create ‘free’ universities that operate as enclaves or villages separate from the rest of the world.”

At the same time, the histories of power that have shaped higher education institutions on the continent and their disciplinary offerings must be critically reviewed and redressed so that the “wounds” of the past may be healed and new understandings of the world may be produced, he says.