Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) and education experts, emphasised revitalisation of the country’s educational system through application of technology and innovation as key ingredients for its transformation.
This was discussed at the fourth edition of the NBCC African EduTech Conference with the theme: ‘Africa’s Edutech Model: Reshaping You for The Future’ in partnership with Education First Nigeria Limited.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation(UNESCO), 91.3 per cent of the world’s learning population was impacted by global shutdowns brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that about 1.5 billion students were not in school, a situation that largely impacted developing nations, a lot of which are in Africa.
President, NBCC, Bisi Adeyemi described this unexpected global event caused a huge shift in the way Africans access learning tools as the majority of schools had to adapt to the learning-from home education model.
She said the conference seeks to reawaken the quest for transformative education that stands on the tripod of digitalisation, education financing and the future of work; supported by a responsive policy environment, saying, ‘this is the only way to guarantee a future-focused African society that we all will be proud of.’
The executive vice chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Danbatta, said COVID-19 pandemic had further revealed the extent of mankind’s dependence on Information and Communication Technology (ICT), as modern species.
According to Danbatta, new and emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), 5G, among others will further push boundaries of ICT globally as well as in Nigeria.
“Digital transformation is fast reshaping different sectors of our economy and the education sector is not left out. We have in recent years, witnessed the proliferation of different EdTech solutions aimed at facilitating teaching, learning and research in Nigeria.
“The provision of quality education services especially in the 21st century is vital to bridging the digital-literacy divide and lay the knowledge-foundations for Nigeria’s transition to a fully digital economy.”
Chairman, Learning, Education and Training Committee, Mr Seyi Adeyemi, noted that African countries had been battling to measure up to advanced countries due to concomitant challenges.
These challenges, Adeyemi said, were tied to improperly managed education sector, social security issues and jaundiced government policies, among others.
Chairman, Universal Basic Education Board, Ogun, Dr Femi Majekodunmi, noted that, problems associated with improving learning were still very much there, saying, funding via individual philanthropy, blue chip companies, private sector and government efforts was very critical to revitalising the education sector.
Country director of Unicaf, Mr Oluwafemi Apena, stressed the need for progressive collaboration to handling products that would shore up the education sector of the country.
He pushed for the public-private partnership model where companies, private institutions come together with the government to create solutions and infrastructure for the sector and manage the delivery of those solutions.
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