FG launches digital quality assurance platform to boost basic education

The Federal Government has unveiled an electronic quality assurance system, the Federal Education Quality Assurance Service Cloud Server (FEQAS-collect), aimed at enhancing the quality of basic and secondary education delivery in the country.

The Minister of State for Education, Dr. Yusuf Sununu, officially launched the platform at a ceremony held at the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Digital Resource Centre in Abuja. He explained that the system is designed to streamline the collection, analysis, and reporting of data related to educational quality in schools nationwide.

Dr. Sununu highlighted that the automation of the Federal Education Quality Assurance Service Department, facilitated by the new cloud server, would enable the Federal Ministry of Education to more effectively monitor, evaluate, and improve education quality assurance processes across the country. The cloud server is expected to revolutionize the operations of the FEQAS Department by enhancing data capturing and management, streamlining processes, boosting collaboration and efficient reporting, ensuring scalability and flexibility, and fortifying security and data protection.

The Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, noted that the manual conduct of school quality assurance evaluations had been fraught with challenges such as delays and human errors, which underscored the need for an automated system.

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He revealed that the Commission had adopted digital technology to promote flexibility, accuracy, and timely reporting, and to reduce human errors. This advancement was supported by the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA), leading to the development of “UBEC Collect,” which is now used by Quality Assurance Officers in the Commission, State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs), and Local Government Education Authorities (LGEAs).

Dr. Bobboyi expressed satisfaction with the innovation, which he said has helped officers conduct their work more efficiently and provide timely feedback to schools and stakeholders. He emphasized that the technological intervention is crucial for addressing the challenge of learning poverty in the country and improving the evaluation of learners’ performance.

The Director of Quality Assurance at UBEC, Mrs. Helen Okoro, noted that the launch of the initiative aligns both Federal Education Quality Assurance Services (FEQAS) and UBEC Quality Assurance Officers (QAOs) in their efforts to monitor and evaluate schools. She added that the use of digital tablets in evaluations is intended to simplify the work of field officers and ensure that all aspects of school evaluations are effectively covered.