The government of South Korea through its development agency, Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) is supporting the establishment of six model smart schools in Nigeria.
The executive secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr Hamid Bobboyi, made this known in Abuja, when he received the Korean Ambassador to Nigeria, Kim Pan-Kyu, at the UBEC Digital Resource Centre.
Kim Pan-Kyu was at the UBEC Digital Resource Centre to inspect the facilities for the training of teachers on smart education.
The envoy also used the occasion to interact briefly with the experts from Korea who are in Nigeria to train Nigerian teachers and head teachers on running smart schools as well as intensive training on content development.
The UBEC boss thanked the Government and people of Korea for the tremendous support right from the beginning to the stage where 14 out of the 37 Smart Schools being established in Nigeria have taken off.
He said, “We are exceptionally happy to have His Excellency, the Ambassador of Korea to Nigeria, visiting the UBEC Digital Resource Centre not only to see the infrastructure that we have for training of teachers but also witnessing the Korean experts who have recently arrived the country to help in the training of teachers from various parts of Nigeria.
“We have been to Korea ourselves and we have to express deep appreciation to the Government of Korea for supporting our Smart School project.
“We went to Korea, see what is going and a lot of teachers, particularly the head teachers also went there to receive training and now a lot of experts are here with us to impart additional knowledge in these teachers on how to run a modern smart school, the kind that we have established here in Nigeria,” he said.
He disclosed that so far 14 Smart Schools have taken off, expressing optimism that the remaining ones would come on stream.
The UBEC boss further announced that the studio equipment which Korea had promised Nigeria had arrived.
According to him, KOICA is supporting the establishment of six out of the 37 smart schools being established by the federal government across the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The Korean Ambassador to Nigeria, Kim Pan-Kyu, earlier expressed satisfaction with the progress being made by UBEC in the implementation of smart education in Nigeria and promised continued support of his country to Nigeria.
