The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has declared its intention to deploy offline hub, a super computer in a box containing contents on the Nigerian Learning Passport (NLP) in 150 schools across the country.
Babagana Aminu, Education Specialist, UNICEF, said this during a visit, in collaboration with Lagos State Ministry of Education, to Ladoje Nursery and Primary School, Orile-Agege, Lagos, on Friday.
The visit was to commemorate the International Day of the African Child, observed annually on June 16, with the 2023 theme as, “The Rights of the Child in the Digital Environment”.
The Day focuses on the barriers African Children face in order to receive quality education.
Aminu described the Learning Passport (LP) adopted in Nigeria- NLP as an initiative, a virtual learning platform that provides free access to education contents developed by Microsoft with support from UNICEF.
He said that its uniqueness was that it could be programmed online, on mobile, offline can also be deployed in hard to reach areas where internet was not on ground.
According to him, the idea is to provide opportunity to parents, families communities and members that don’t have the privilege to purchase data for their wards to benefit from the platform.
He recalled that Digital Learning (DL) platforms incited by Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) resulted in schools closure whereby over 50 million were out-of-school, hence education cannot wait and there was need for children to continue to learn even while at home.
The UNICEF Education Specialist expressed that DL offered increased access to quality education for children in Nigeria, saying, “we have to re-imagine education, a right that no child should be deprived off”.
“The offline does not require internet because it comes with all contents and can be deployed, in the next few weeks, we are going to deploying in 150 schools across Nigeria to demonstrate how offline can be achieved.
“There are about fifteen thousand different lesson comprised of English, Mathematics, Basic Science, Business Studies, Basic Technology, Computer Science, Professional Soft Skill, Vocational Training, Chemistry, Biology and others.
“These contents are in English and the three basic Nigeria languages spoken in Nigeria, and the idea is to able to provide access to children with different language background with the contents that they can consume,” he added.
Ladoje Nursery and Primary School Orile-Agege is one of the public schools where the Nigerian Learning Passport (NLP) has been deployed and children reaping the benefits of digital learning and achieving success in their studies.
Also speaking, Dr Afolabi Sunday, Director, Policy, Planning, Research and Statistics Department, Lagos State Ministry of Education, said that the state government has remained committed to equip schools at all levels with ICT gadgets.
Sunday noted that the idea was to ensure that students were familiar with modern learning technology to be in tune with the global system, adding that aspiring candidates into the state Model Colleges must sit for CBT examination.
He said that UNICEF had been partnering the ministry, making sure that tablets were provided in schools, adding that trainings were being carried out both at the local government and state levels.
“The Lagos State Government is doing a lot in this regard, virtually all our secondary schools have ICT lab and we will continue to do more to cover all ground.
“We also expose them to e-learning like the NLP, EKOEXCEL and other packages to make sure that our students learning and using ICT gadgets,” he added.
Earlier in a statement, by Blessing Ejiofor, UNICEF Communication Officer, Cristian Munduate, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria had urged stakeholders in the education sector to adopt NLP to scale, reduce number of out-of-school children in Nigeria.
Munduate said the step step would go a long way to further improve foundational literacy and numeracy, adding, ‘ Digital technology provides us with a platform to innovate and seeks ways for inclusive quality education for all children’
She expressed that education sector in Nigeria was faced with challenges, such as poor access to quality learning, low domestic spending on education resulting in limited school infrastructure and qualified teachers, high levels of poverty and social norms not supportive of education especially for girls.
” More than 10 million children are not in school at the primary level. For those in school, the quality of learning is poor; 75 per cent of primary school age pupils are unable to read with understanding or solve a simple math problem.
“To bridge the access to quality learning opportunities, UNICEF and the Federal Ministry of Education launched the NLP last year, that enables continuous access to 15,000 curriculum aligned learning and training materials in local languages for learners, teachers, and parents.
“It is highly flexible and adaptable, allowing states, schools, teachers, parents, and other users to adapt it easily and quickly as their learning management system in school, for homework support and to ensure continuity of learning when schools are closed in emergency contexts.
“UNICEF has provided 780 schools in hard-to-reach areas and rural schools with 13,500 tablets, 1,000 smart rechargeable projectors and 780 Airtel internet routers.
“Connectivity has been enabled for 186 schools through a partnership with IHS towers and data costs removed through the whitelisting of the NLP on an Airtel SIM card.
“So far, since its inception, the Nigeria Learning Passport has provided access to quality teaching and learning resources to 280,000 learners, teachers, parents and young people,” she added.
