Connected Development (CODE), an NGO, has called on Kaduna state government to mainstream Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into its education policy to prepare young people for ICT-driven jobs.
CODE Chief Executive Officer, Hamzat Lawal, made the call when he led other officials of the organisation on a courtesy visit to the state’s Commissioner for Planning and Budget Commission in Kaduna on Wednesday.
Lawal, represented by the NGO’s State Team Lead, Zaliha Lawal, said that the youth should be exposed to ICT from primary school to prepare them for future skills that revolves around ICT.
According to him, this will adequately equip the youths with needed skills and prepare them for the ICT-driven jobs that currently characterised labour markets across the world.
“We appreciate the state government for the consistent reasonable budgetary allocation to the education sector. It is quite commendable. But how digital is the education sector?
“Today there is huge unemployment because our youths are not trained to handle the ICT-driven jobs of today. The state’s budget and education programmes should speak to the needs of young people.
“We want the government to focus more on providing youths with the kind of education and skills that will enable them respond to needs of the present and that of the future,” he said.
He appealed to the government to also tailor its health programmes and interventions to meet the yearnings of young people, particularly sexual and reproductive health services.
“We noticed that the priority of government in the health sector does not speak into the yearnings of young people.
“Take sexual and reproductive health services for instance, where young people still face some discrimination in accessing contraceptives and other family planning services in health facilities.
“This should be looked into to enable youths make informed choices that assures positive outcome in the future.This is critical in accelerating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the state,” he added.
The CEO also said that CODE, with support from Action Aid Nigeria, had in the last four months been training youths on how to analyse the budget.
According to him, the goal is to support young people access relevant information to demand for quality services that respond to their needs.
“They keep telling us that youths are the leaders of tomorrow, but for us, tomorrow is now and today. We have begun organising ourselves for position of leadership.
“But we cannot take the position of leadership if we are not well trained and prepared to face the challenges of the day.
“Therefore, we want a sustainable budgeting system in education and health sectors that meet the yearnings of young people as critical stakeholders in attaining SDGs in the state.
“We also appeal to the government to mainstream people living with disabilities in governance and in the provision of services to foster social and economic inclusion,” he explained
Responding, the Commissioner, Mr Thomas Gyang, thanked CODE for the visit and described the NGO as a “worthy partner”, saying that the state government was doing its best to empower young people.
Gyang explained that the state was currently providing scholarship to young people to fill various skill gap in the state.
He also said that a committee had been set up to determine available jobs with no skills, and those with skills but no job, to guide the state’s youth employment programmes.
On ICT, the commissioner said that government had distributed tablet computers to secondary school students, adding that all public primary and secondary school would be equipped with computer laboratories for sustainability.
For the health sector, Gyang said that the government was taking necessary steps to improve the quality of services through renovation and equipping health centres with needed facilities and manpower.
He said that state was passionate about meeting the needs of people living with disabilities, stressing that government was not only giving them voice but creating space for them to live a quality life.
