The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), through its country director, Mr Son Sungil, has handed over the second batch of 2,340 digital educational content materials and a digital content development and utilisation guideline to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).
It was remembered that 1,662 educational video clips and 900 digital educational content materials were already handed over to UBEC on October 28, 2024, bringing the total to 3,240 digital educational content materials.
The ceremony at UBEC’s Digital Resource Centre in Abuja marks a significant milestone in the Smart Education project, a collaborative initiative between KOICA and UBEC that began in 2021.
Sungil said the Korean government has generously supported this project with a substantial grant of $10.4 million, which is aimed at enhancing Nigeria’s basic education through smart technologies.
“The digital contents, which are targeted at Primary 4-6 pupils and Junior Secondary School (JSS) 1 students, focus on mathematics and science subjects to help improve teaching and learning outcomes in the classrooms, as well as increase pupils/students’ interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects. The educational digital contents are expected to be disseminated across the 37 smart schools and other public schools in Nigeria”.
“What’s most interesting is that the 2,340 digital educational content materials were developed by 70 teachers from 6 Smart schools supported by KOICA (Kano, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Ekiti, Cross River and FCT), proving their expertise from the various KOICA-sponsored training they have received in Korea and Nigeria.”
At the handover ceremony, Mr Son stated, “This ceremony represents our shared commitment to quality education in Nigeria and excellent collaboration between KOICA and UBEC.
I hope the content will help the teachers deliver better learning experiences and outcomes for the students.”
While receiving the content on behalf of the UBEC, the national coordinator of the Smart School Programme, Professor Bashir Galadanci, stated that UBEC will ensure that the content and guidelines are judiciously utilised in the smart schools and other schools across Nigeria.
To ensure the continuous development of quality educational content in Smart schools, KOICA provided capacity-building training sessions for teachers and school principals to record, edit, and develop digital content for classroom teaching. KOICA also installed modern Content Development Studios (CDS) with state-of-the-art equipment for producing digital content in KOICA-supported smart schools, namely Kano, Cross River, Bauchi, Ekiti, Nasarawa, and FCT.
