The Federal Government through the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy has launched the National Adopted School for Smart Education (NASSE).
The initiative which was launched at Junior Secondary School, Karshi, Abuja, is being implemented by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA).
Speaking at the launching, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Pantami, said the NASSE is in line with the present administration’s digital economy agenda.
He said the digitalisation of every sector in Nigeria will accelerate the digital economy of the country’s dream.
“NASSE is a model of catching our young ones early enough into the world of technology in a more productive way particularly in the education sector.
“Education is the backbone of a nation’s prosperity as allows a country and individual to hold a competitive edge in the ever-advancing technological world and reach their full potential.
“The goal of education is not only to increase the amount of knowledge but to create the possibilities for a child to invent and discover, to create men who are capable of doing new things.
“The purpose of education is to teach our children to think intensively and critically. This can be more realistic if they are exposed to education at young ages,” he explained.
He said the digital education space, the Government would want to support such indigenous businesses to grow while promoting the development of digital education in Nigeria.
“I am proud to say that the solution being deployed today here at JSS Karshi is an indigenous Cloud-based Digital Education Platform for smart teaching and learning based on the National Educational Research Development Council (NERDC) curriculum.
“We hope that this pilot succeeds in order to encourage us to deploy to other schools across the geo-political zone of Nigeria.
“I will implore the school management, teachers and students to take this intervention seriously and make use of it. I am also soliciting for the support of the JSS Karshi’s PTA and parents, in general, to make this a success in the long run”, Dr Pantami added.
On his part, the Director-General of NITDA, Kashifu Abdullahi, said NASSE is an implementation of the Nigeria Smart Initiative by NITDA in the education sector, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, to aid the implementation of National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) for a digital Nigeria.
He said as part of NITDA’s strategic objectives, it supports every sector of the economy to succeed at this digital age.
“NDEPS, as the main driver of digital Nigeria, is in support of the global Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) in education, especially the Goal 4 on “Quality Education” and the campaign promise of President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration in education,” Abdullahi said.
He said NASSE is designed to accelerate the achievement of this global and national agenda by smartly engaging in “building and upgrading education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive with provision of safe, nonviolent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all.”
Abdullahi said the Agency would partner with relevant stakeholders to mobilise resources and facilitate innovative and context-appropriate solutions to provide education remotely, leveraging hi-tech, low-tech and no-tech approaches.
“The desire to ensure our students have access to education anywhere and anytime motivated us to design NASSE as an ecosystem and indigenous contents-driven platform.
“We are partnering with sub-national Governments, technology ecosystem and stakeholders in the education sector at the grassroots to deploy a digital education platform that would aid remote and collaborative teaching and learning thereby preparing the nation for the education of the future.
“Today, we are launching the pilot edition of NASSE in partnership with AMAC and other critical stakeholders at Junior Secondary School Karshi.
“We are deploying one of the indigenous cloud based digital education solutions that is based on the National Educational Research Development Council (NERDC) curriculum to support over 500 students and 30 teachers for JSS 2 Karshi,” NITDA boss said.
He further said the Agency would provide “digital literacy capacity building for over 500 students and teachers; Free Wireless Broadband (unlimited contents download and upload) for students and teachers.
“Portable renewable energy system; Smart education devices (Tablets); and Instructor’s Android-enabled smart screen.”
“Our aim is to promote massive access to quality education at the grassroots while leveraging digital technologies and innovations,” he added.
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