Ibadan — Nigeria's Permanent Delegate to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Professor Michael Omolewa, has lauded the inclusion of education for all in the seven point agenda of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua.

Omolewa, at a lecture entitled, "Distance Education and its Relevance to the Seven-Point Agenda of President Musa Yar'Adua's Administration," as part of activities heralding the 20th Anniversary of the University of Ibadan Distance Learning Centre, noted that the education aspect of the agenda guarantees an investment by Nigeria, in the international agenda to provide an increased access to education for all.

Omolewa said the agenda, if well implemented, will be able to resolve the problem of hunger, poverty, unemployment and lack of patriotism, among other challenges facing Nigeria."

Yar'Adua had declared that "a strategic educational development plan will ensure excellence in both the tutoring and learning of skills in science and technology, by students who would be seen as future innovators and industrialists of Nigeria. This reform will be achieved through massive injection into the education sector."

He said, " Yar'Adua's recognition of education as one of the pillars of his agenda is appropriate, because it effectively accommodates the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the United Nations Literacy Decade, in addition to the Education for All."

Oyo State Governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala, in his speech, said "Nigerians still do not seem to have realised the fact that we ought to take education holistically, if we must address the challenges in our education system.

"The ignorance is revealed whenever you mention distance learning, you are faced with some kinds of opposition, forgetting the need to cater for all groups of people. Records have shown that out of every 100 applicants who seek admission into Nigeria universities, less than 20 gain admission. What do we do with the remaining 80? The existence of Distance Learning will cater for the remaining 80," Alao-Akala said.