Mentoring Assistance for Youths and Entrepreneurs Initiative (MAYEIN), a non-profit organisation based in Oyo State, on Monday, in Ibadan, launched a digital skills hub for Oyo State teachers.
The founder and executive director of the organisation, Edem Dorothy Ossai, while giving her remarks, stated that since the inception of the organisation in 2011, the teachers’ skills digital hub─which is supported by the Queen’s Commonwealth Trust, United Kingdom─is its latest programme aimed at preparing school teachers to leverage technology for delivering formal classroom education for children in remote areas and during emergencies.
She also stated that they are ready for the programme and that they have installed a full-functional digital resource centre that is mainly for teachers.
“We want to upscale teachers with computer skills. We want them to know how to use internet-based tools like Zoom, Google Classroom, and WhatsApp─which is more accessible to families and children,” Ossai said.
“We want them to be able to leverage these tools to reach their students, to digitise their contents to deliver learning, classroom teaching, regardless of the circumstances beyond the physical walls of the classroom.”
She noted that their target is to train two hundred public school teachers in the programme’s first year of operations and that the cost of training a teacher is 15,000 naira.
She also noted that their goal is to raise two million naira to provide partial scholarships to the teachers so that the organisation will pay 10,000 naira for teachers and the teachers will only have to pay the remaining 5,000 naira.
“We are reaching out to our main partners and grant givers,” she said. “But most importantly, we recognise that this has to be driven locally. We cannot continue to look up to foreign grants for some of the imperatives that befall us.”
Former Ambassador to the Philippines, Dr Yemi Farounbi, handled the Ribbon Cutting ceremony and declared the teachers’ hub officially opened. He commended the MAYEIN team for the initiative and for adding value to the lives of teachers.
After the launch of the hub, Ossai gave a brief breakdown of how the teachers’ digital skill hub will work. She stated that the programme is a four-week programme whose models are certified by Microsoft and that they have recruited trained resource persons to help with the training.
Chief Bayo Oyero stated that he is happy to see young Nigerians who are ready to use their knowledge and skills for this kind of intervention. He, however, advised the organisation not to limit itself to secondary school teachers alone, that primary school teachers need the initiatives most.
Mrs Elizabeth Etteh lauded Ossai for identifying a need in the society and putting in her best to make it grow for the good of the society. She stressed that the best investment is the investment in people.
Pastor Biodun Aladekomo emphasised that education is the most effective tool to rescue people from poverty and other social ills.
He described the teachers’ hub as a destiny helper that will enable people to learn.
Dr Tide Olalere lamented that one big gap that has been there in Nigeria is the training of teachers, especially in public schools. He assured MAYEIN that his organisation, the Baptist Missions School, will partner with them to train their teachers.
Other important people present at the event include, but not limited to; Kolade Mosuro, the MD OF Bookseller; Dr Louisa Andah, former Director of Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy; Dr Adefunke Ekinne of Tai Solarin University; Dr Ojebola, the Executive Secretary of Mid-Westland University.
In her closing remarks, Ossai solicited more partnership and funding for their programmes. She stated that the teachers’ digital skills hub programme is not the only programme the organisation runs.
Their other programmes and services include; the Oyo e-Literacy Project; MAYEIN Youth Centre; Girls without Borders Peer Advocate and Leaders Project; World Book Day Celebration; and Teachers Development Assistance Programme.
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