By Lizzy Carr, Bauchi
Bauchi state on Thursday, joined the league of states that have adopted the Nigerian Learning Protocol (NLP).
It has also assured to support the Ministry of Education in overcoming challenges in adopting the NLP until its full opportunities are realized.
Speaking at the programme launched at the Banquet Hall of the Government House the state governor, Bala Mohammed said education is among the major areas of concern for his administration.
Emphasizing that education is the key to development in all other sectors, he stressed that with an ever increasing population and dwindling resources, the challenges of education will continue to be faced by governments, today and in the future.
Represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Ibrahim Kashim Mohammed, the governor said to overcome challenges in the sector, government must employ technology to facilitate education and learning.
“We are in an era of unprecedented digital revolution in all aspects of life. In the same way that ICT has come to make business and communications easy, it has also come to make education delivery easier by overcoming many otherwise unsurmountable challenges which have stagnated its progress in the past five decades,” Mohammed said.
According to him, ICT has provided computers, tablets, applications and online content for teaching, noting that all that is needed is to put learning within the reach of every citizen.
The governor said for the past three years, his administration has not failed to see and use the great opportunity that ICT offers in education management and delivery.
“I am happy to announce that much has been achieved by my administration in this regard, particularly at the Ministry of Education where a solid foundation of complete digital transformation is being laid.
“From the operation of the Ministry such as examinations, admission, monitoring and evaluation, promotions and payments, to its interaction with schools managers in the field, ICT is fast replacing the old and cumbersome manual system that it inherited, a system that has become obsolete and a clog in the wheel of efficient education delivery,” the governor added.
According to him, the Ministry of Education has, with the aid of ICT, successfully carried out two large scale operations which would have taken months, if not a whole year to complete the Annual School Census, the comprehensive inspection of schools using a digital template developed by the Ministry and the Basic Education Certificate Examination which started this Monday and will be completed by Friday.
He added that the analysis of the raw data collected from these and other similar operations is quickly done within a twinkle of an eye and it enabled government to follow trends and formulate data backed policies on education delivery that can hardly be faulted.
“The ministry of education has also introduce cutting edge fingerprint digital terminals to capture staff punctuality.”
He further said that it has been among the reforms programme of the Administration to multiply its good teachers digitally in the quest to address the acute nationwide shortage of competent teachers in some essential subjects.
“Just as we started to record lessons on video, COVID-19 struck and the reality dawned on the world that kinetics of learning can be perverted by many social factors such as disease, insurgency etc. Nigeria closed its schools for six months and both children and teachers remained at home helplessly.”
He stressed that the result of that reality is the awareness that digital learning which has taken root in some countries since 20 years ago must be adopted faster than it was thought as Programmes on radio, television and online were fast cobbled to address the situation.
He however said that the vision and opportunities of the Nigeria Learning Passport (NLP), a Microsoft digital content application jointly driven by the Federal Ministry of Education and UNICEF in Nigeria, is a welcome development that will augment the efforts of governments in the provision and development of the best teaching content from both local and universal sources.
Mohammed further said that for Bauchi State, the NLP team from the Federal level does not need to preach as already the state is practicing discipline of ICT solutions in education Administration.
The Governor then expressed profound support and that of his Government to the adoption of the Nigeria Learning Passport just as he commended Microsoft, the Federal government and UNICEF in providing the common window which all States can key into without wasteful duplication of efforts by each of them to develop its own digital learning application.
He also expressed appreciation of the efforts of the State Ministry of Education, SUBEB and the entire staff in the education sector for the progress the state is witnessing urging the officials to embrace ICT and use its solutions as much as possible for the day to day running of their offices and class delivery of lessons.
In his remarks, Bauchi State Commissioner of Education, Dr Aliyu Usman Tilde said that ICT and education are going to have the same relationship as the challenges and opportunities are right now staring at us in the face.
He stressed that the initial skepticism by cynics guard is there, arguments for keeping to the old system that is so bankrupt in delivering is also there.
Tilde said that there are demands for access instruments like servers, computers, tablets, connectivity as well as digital content and ICT proficient teachers-all demanding mediate consideration.
“We must face them if we have to survive in a competitive world. The present centres for free distribution of ignorance that we call e to give way to the new system that will boost quality education and accord nation-based economy and a citizenry can compete with the rest of the world”.
The commissioner stressed that with the digitized system accorded by ICT, no child will be left behind due to his remoteness or culture because Knowledge will be placed at the doorstep of everybody.
“They will not be carrying lesson notes but tablets. Students may not copy notes anymore. It will be right there deposited on their learning devices too. They may not even chose to go to school but learn from home.”
“For education managers, the opportunities cannot be ever better. Every child, teacher and head teacher will be just some clicks away from the Board or Ministry. There will be no hiding place anymore for teachers who would be absent for 10 years without teaching a single lesson but enjoying salaries and promotions. The corruption and ineptitude of the old system will be done away with forever.”
He noted that what is needed is for government to start the digital journey in education delivery. Less emphasis should be laid to building structures and more should be on acquisition of digital infrastructure, of access equipment and the upgrading of teachers to become ICT proficient.
“In education administration, things can move faster. Every process must be digitized almost instantly. New brains need to come in to replace the old ones that could not upgrade themselves in the past ten years despite the trainings, and so on. Templates must be generated and applications adopted to run Ministries and other education establishments. In the end the benefits are huge and will be reflected in every sector of our social and economic sectors,” he further said.
Tilde said the E learning solves the problem of limited and unaffordable textbooks for every child, provides quality lesson notes and lesson plans, flexible learning methods, etc. While the application is perfected, governments must start thinking of how to make it within the reach of every child and teacher by addressing identified challenges.
He then congratulated the Federal Ministry of Education, UNICEF and Global Partnership for Education that are working hard to introduce the application in the country.
UNICEF Chief of Field Office Bauchi, Dr Tushar Rane said COVID-19 pandemic and attacks on schools and abductions of school children has brought setback to education.
He noted the introduction of the Nigeria learning passport will improve learning and teaching.
