The Federal Government has launched a zero-rated access initiative to remove data costs from approved educational platforms, opening digital learning opportunities to millions of senior secondary and tertiary students across Nigeria.
Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the initiative was designed to ensure that poverty, geography and the cost of internet connectivity no longer determine learners’ access to quality education.
A statement by the Special Adviser to the Minister on Media and Communications, Mr. Ikharo Attah, on Thursday, said Alausa spoke at the launch of the Initiative for Zero-Rated Access to Educational Platforms and Content in Nigeria.
According to the Minister, the intervention goes beyond providing connectivity, as it is aimed at putting learning within the reach of children who may otherwise be unable to afford the data required to access educational content.
He said a mobile phone, tablet or computer could effectively become a classroom, library and gateway to opportunity when the cost of connectivity was removed, particularly for learners from low-income households and communities with limited access to conventional educational infrastructure.
Alausa said the initiative was part of the broader transformation of the education sector under the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative, NESRI, with data and digitalisation serving as key pillars.
He said the Nigeria Education Data Infrastructure, Digital Nigeria Education Management Information System and Learner Identification Number were strengthening the way education was planned, managed and delivered.
The Minister, however, stressed that the ultimate measure of digital transformation would be its ability to reach individual learners and improve the quality of education.
He also disclosed plans for regulated internet access for children below 16 years, as part of measures to strengthen the protection of Nigerian children from cyberattacks and other forms of online harm.
Alausa said the welfare and dignity of children must remain central to Nigeria’s digital education drive, noting that President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to the wellbeing of every Nigerian child required government and other stakeholders to remain vigilant against threats in the digital environment.
He described connectivity as increasingly essential to education, alongside classrooms, textbooks and laboratories, and called for sustained collaboration among the Federal Ministry of Education, state governments, the Nigerian Communications Commission, telecommunications operators, technology companies, development partners, institutions and teachers.
The Minister said Nigeria must move beyond producing young people who merely consume technology to developing a generation capable of creating technology, innovating, solving problems and competing globally.
In his goodwill message, Chairman of the House Committee on Communications, Hon. Peter Akpatason, commended the NCC for the initiative, describing the high cost of data as one of the major barriers to learning in the digital age.
He pledged the commitment of the House of Representatives to policies and legislative measures that would leverage technology to bridge Nigeria’s education gap, particularly for learners in underserved and hard-to-reach communities.
Similarly, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institutions and TETFund, Senator Mohammed Muntari Dandutse, called for measures to ensure that no Nigerian child was excluded from access to knowledge and educational opportunities.
He commended the telecommunications industry for supporting education through various initiatives, including corporate social responsibility programmes aimed at expanding access to learning.
Alausa assured stakeholders that the Federal Ministry of Education would continue to work with the NCC, state governments, telecommunications operators, educational institutions and development partners to ensure that the zero-rated access initiative delivers lasting benefits.
He said the Federal Government was committed to using technology to build an education system in which geography would not determine a child’s future and poverty would not shut the door to knowledge.
