German envoy, Ingo Herbert
The German
Consul-General in Lagos, Mr Ingo Herbert, has urged Nigerian leaders to
intensify efforts in equipping the teeming youths with quality education at all
levels. He made the call on the sidelines of the official launch of an NGO
called SJJ Education on Tuesday in Lagos. SJJ Education is a German Education
NGO for international students.
Herbert
said that one of the ways to ensure quality education in youths was to use
substantial portion of recovered funds allegedly stolen by public officials in
ensuring free tuition across all levels. The envoy added that for any country
to attain accelerated development and growth, it must invest massively in the
education of its citizens.
He added that “education is a critical and potent weapon in the empowerment of any individual. “In October 2014 for example, the German Government took the step to completely scrap tuition fees in all public universities which allowed international students to study in universities free.
“With this
arrangement, we had in 2014, about 2.7 million university students studying
free with about 300,000 of them foreigners. “This German policy on education,
particularly the higher education, is made free for everyone, irrespective of
nationality.” The Chairman of SJJ Education, Mr Saturday Jackson, said that the
purpose of the launch of the NGO was to create more awareness on its
activities. Jackson said that the NGO, which commenced operations in 2012, had
so far assisted 200 Nigerian students to travel to Germany to further their
education.
He added
that “our job basically is to package all the education needs and travel
requirements for students who genuinely show interest in studying in Germany.
“We serve as a bridge between German universities and students in Nigeria by
screening and vetting these candidates for these universities. “As Germany
opens up to international students, many of her institutions now offer courses
and programmes entirely in English language. “This means Nigerian students can
take up Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees, as well as PhDs and Research
Fellowships without a prior study on German language.
(NAN)
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