The Edo State government has refuted the allegation that it is phasing out the educational tablets introduced by Governor Godwin Obaseki’s immediate past government to boost the state’s e-learning programme.
The Edo State Government has said that it is not phasing out the educational tablets introduced to boost e-learning programme in the basic schools by the immediate past government of Godwin Obaseki in the state.
Rumours have been spreading that the Governor Monday Okpebholo-led government has concluded plans to phase out the e-learning programme in public schools.
The e-learning programme introduced by the government in the immediate past involved teachers using digital tablets to teach students in basic schools, from primary to junior secondary schools.
The executive chairman of the Edo State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB), Mrs Onomen Goodness Briggs who disclosed this in an interview with newsmen in Benin City yesterday, said the state is only replacing the content in the tablets.
Briggs, said the need to replace the content was due to the obsolete nature of the Universal Basic Education curriculum at the time the contents were created by the immediate past government.
She also disclosed that the tablets are for Edo State while the contents are for consultants employed by the past government to run the programme.
She added that officials of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) are already creating a portal for the contents, assuring that when finished the state government has the potential of selling the portal to other states as well as other countries for revenue generation.
According to her, “We heard that people are saying that we want to phase out the use of digital tablets to teach in our schools by the state government.
“I want to clarify that we are not phasing out the programme, but we are only replacing the contents in line with the current Universal Basic Education curriculum. The curriculum that was operating when the tablet was introduced by the immediate past government is obsolete, so we are currently developing new content to replace that.
“The tablets the teachers are using are for Edo state, and when you hear that they are withdrawing the tablet, it is not the tablet that they are withdrawing but the contents.
“The EdoBest issue is that the contents are the consultants’ property and not for Edo State. So, for retaining it, it means we are going to keep the consultants in the state forever and ever for us to keep using those contents.
“It is about the contents and not the containers. The container is our own (tablets). We have already bought it, even though it is not in all schools in the state”, she said.
The SUBEB boss also disclosed that in collaboration with staff, the board has been able to create its own content.
She said the content consists of the curriculum and schemes of work that teachers use to teach pupils and students.
“As we speak, in collaboration with my teams, we have been able to create our own content. Even right now by the grace of God by the time we finished, those in charge of the ICT are already creating a portal.”
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