Bauchi State Government has joined the league of states that have adopted the Nigerian Learning Protocol (NLP) with the assurance of supporting the Ministry of Education in overcoming challenges in adopting the NLP until its full opportunities are realized.
Speaking at the official launching of the program held at the Banquet Hall of the Government House on Thursday, State Governor, Sen Bala Mohammed Abdulkadir said that education is the major area of concern for the Government after the security of lives and property.
He emphasized that It is the key to development in all other sectors stressing 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.
The Governor who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Barr Ibrahim Kashim Mohammed however said that the One key area in overcoming those challenges is the employment of technology to facilitate education administration and learning.
According to him, “We are in an era of an 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”.
Bala Mohammed noted that ICT has provided the world of education the computers, tablets, applications, online content and teaching and all that is needed to put learning within reach of every citizen pointing out that, “What remains is the will and the ingenuity to utilize the opportunity maximally.”
He explained that since its inception, his Government has not failed to see and use the great opportunity that ICT offers in education management and delivery saying, “I am happy to announce that many things have been achieved by my Government 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, “Just this month, 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 on Friday”.
He added that the analysis of the raw data collected from these and other similar operations is quickly done within a twinkle and it enabled Government to follow trends and formulate data-backed policies on education delivery that can hardly be faulted adding that, “this is not to mention the introduction of 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.
The Governor added that “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 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 “But in all these, none has come close to the vision and opportunities of the Nigeria Learning Passport(NLP) The NLP- a Microsoft digital content application jointly driven by the Federal Ministry of Education and UNICEF in Nigeria-is a welcome development. It has come to augment the efforts of Governments in the provision and development of the best teaching content from both local and universal sources”.
Bala Mohammed further said that “It has exactly come to do what my Administration set out to do to the State at its inception. In Bauchi State, the NLP team from the Federal level does not need to preach to the converted. We are already there, practising the discipline of ICT solutions in education Administration”.
The Governor then expressed profound support and that of his Government for the adoption of the Nigeria Learning Passport just as he commended Microsoft, the Federal government and UNICEF for 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 then pledged the unreserved support of his Government in the development and adoption of the NLP as according to him, Bauchi State is ready to participate fully in it.
He also expressed appreciation for 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.
He concluded by saying, “I am glad to note that your unrelenting effort has placed Bauchi State among the leading States in the adoption of ICT solutions. To ice the cake, I urge you to embrace the NLP for the successful education of our children.”
Earlier in his opening 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 scepticism by cynics guard is there, and arguments for keeping to the old system that is so bankrupt in delivering is also there.
The Commissioner 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 saying that it is like demanding the construction of tarred roads, railway port in the age of animal carriage.
According to him, “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”.
Aliyu Usman Tilde 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.
“He only needs to tab and, behold, he is introduced to a world of learning that is richer than what obtained in the best institutions of the world. Teachers will access content with a click of their finger”, he added.
He emphasized that “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 choose to go to school but learn from home”.
According to him, “For education managers, the opportunities cannot be even 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 then stressed that “What remains for government is to start the digital journey in education delivery. Less emphasis should be laid on building structures and more should be on the 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 training, 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.
The Commissioner concluded by saying, “The Federal Ministry of Education has realized this. It has started the digital journey in different ways. The Nigeria Learning Passport is just one of them. It is a pioneer program of making world-class content available to both teachers and learners.”
“It 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 the challenges we enlisted above”, he added.
He then congratulated the Federal Ministry of Education, UNICEF and Global Partnership for Education which are working hard to introduce the application in the country assuring that, “At our level, they are posing a challenge to each government to wake up. The train of digitization is ready; its departure whistle is blown, the way it started with the banks in the 2000s’.
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