From Patrick Egwu, Enugu
12 June, 2016
Aminu
Usman, 15, wants to be a medical doctor. But that dream was near shattered when
Boko Haram sect invaded his home town of Mubi in Adamawa State, northeast
Nigeria last year, killed his parents and took his two sisters hostage. He has
not heard from them since then.
Presently
he is one of the thousands of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camping at
the outskirt of the town, away from the haunting eyes of the dreaded sect and
guarded by heavily armed soldiers.
However,
Usman’s dream of becoming a doctor is gradually coming to reality – all thanks
to the American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, who deployed digital tech –
savvy teachers and volunteers to train displaced children to use technology to
continue education in preparation for their chosen fields. Usman and hundreds
of others like him are now going back to the classrooms, armed with
sophisticated gadgets with installed instructional apps.
According
to UNESCO (2015), there are millions of out of school children in the
conflict-ridden northeast of Nigeria. But in one classroom, the future is
looking brighter.
In
a co-educational secondary school in Yola, capital of Adamawa state, each
teenager sits in front of a laptop, embedded with online educational
apps. They are enrolled in an extracurricular class run by the nearby
AUN, which prepares them for university degrees in mathematics, science and
technology.
In
the front of their class, Dr Wilson Uware, an engaging doctor from the
university uses a ₦12,630
($40) credit card sized computer known as “Raspberry Pi” to project
mathematical charts and graphs on a white board.
“The
youngsters here are bright, computer smart and ambitious. They say they would
like Nigeria to have a Chinese style tech revolution and that is the direction
we should be thinking towards in order to achieve all around educational
development through digital tech – enabled devices and apps”, DrUware said.
This
is one of the 22 schools where AUN runs these classes. DrUware says the
innovation is not just something for the elite. At a few dollars apiece, he
sees no reason every school in the country should not be using this kind of
tech to improve learning outcomes.
Similarly
in south eastern Nigeria, the application of digital tech in learning is
sweeping across classrooms especially in the rural areas. Here, school
administrators and tech savvy teachers deploy the use of mobile apps in
teaching students, thus improving learning and access to education even to the
most disadvantaged members of the community.
At
Community Secondary School, in Ezeagu local government area in Enugu state,
with their mobile phones connected to a nearby Wi-Fi, which was installed by a
telecommunication firm, students are taught English language with different
mobile instructional materials.
“Mobile
learning increases access to those who cannot physically attend learning
institutions – those who would not otherwise be able to follow courses in a
traditional educational setting due to the constraints of work, house hold
activities or other demands”, Professor Charles Omekwu, an expert in digital
technology and Information Science from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka says.
“It
makes education more accessible in that it enables learners to pursue their
studies according to their own schedule”, Professor Omekwu said.
With
these mobile apps, students are improving their hopes of a better future by
learning literacy, numeracy and critical thinking skills.
In
2014, the Nigeria Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC) in
partnership with Sidmach Technologies Nigeria Limited launched an innovative
e-curriculum.
The
initiative which is powered by Intel Processor and Microsoft Computer Software
brings curriculum both for students and teachers online and equipped with
teaching and learning tools which helps teachers teach and students learn
through interactive, analytic and collaborative learning environment.
The
initiative by NERDC was in pursuance of the federal government’s initiative in
the education sector. For instance in 2006, the Federal Ministry of Education
launched an ICT – driven project called School Net (www.snng.org) which was intended to equip all
schools in Nigeria with digital technologies and broadband access to public
schools across the country.
Recently,
Facebook Founder, Mark Zuckerberg visited Nigeria’s Co-Creation Hub in Lagos,
where he addressed school children aged 5 – 18 years who are on a “Summer of
Code” digital learning programme and described Nigeria’s tech industry as the
“next big thing” in Africa.
Despite
all these abounding opportunities of learning through digital technology and
improving access to education in the country at all levels, there are, however,
some setbacks.
For
instance, epileptic power supply is one of the recurring problems facing not
only the economy, but the educational sector as well. Power outages are regular
and random. This makes the situation a bit complex as some of these digital
tech hardware run on electricity.
Poverty
is also a challenge as some schools are running short of government budget,
coupled with high cost of purchasing these facilities. For example, a smart
phone or Android phone which can run these instructional apps goes for ₦25,620 – ₦31,575 ($80 – $100). The
same applies to a tablet or personal computer (PC) which is sold between ₦80,500 – ₦113,670 ($255 – $360)
respectively.
With
Nigeria’s economy in recession now, purchasing these gadgets for schools
becomes a herculean task for government, administrators and students.
Similarly,
some of the teachers are not ICT savvy. This poses a challenge and makes it
difficult for digital information transfer to take place between teachers and
students.
Mrs.
Jane Nwankwo, a principal in one of the community schools in Enugu state,
attributes this to poor perception of digital technology among teachers and
school administrators.
“Many
of them are showing lukewarm attitude to the innovation. In most cases, when
the computers are installed with instructional apps, they (teachers) are not
willing to learn from tutors. How can they now teach students?” she queried.
“But
I think the presence of digital tech has greatly improved accessibility to education
in Nigeria”, Mrs. Nwankwo says.
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