Again, honour for Opon Imo as UNESCO endorses tablet

• Adoption vindicates our education reforms, says deputy governor, Laoye-Tomori

JUST as the storm that greeted educational reforms introduced by the Osun State government peter down, an endorsement of an aspect of the reforms has come from no less a quarter than an organisation that should know better, the United‎ Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

  Since coming on board, the Rauf Aregbesola-led government has come up with a number of innovations aimed at radically improving the standard of education in the state. 

  While some of them have been met with rave reviews in the media and in the process attract encomiums from within and outside the country, others have received scathing criticisms from critics of the government and sundry groups. 

 At a glance, the reform programme entails the following: OSCHOOL project, where around 100 model schools are being built across the state; OMEAL project, which ensures free daily lunch meal for 254, 000 elementary year one to four kids; OUNIFORM project, which makes possible, the standardisation of school uniform for 750, 000 students across the state.

  The reform also entails a centre of excellence pedagogical institute for the capacity development of teachers and the building of nine vocational education centres for skills development among others.

  By way of introduction, the state government, as part of its strategic efforts to meet the educational needs of its students, had commissioned a Project Management Office (PMO) saddled with the task of delivering a technology-based learning system, which consists of a total of 150, 000 units of provisioned android tablets. The tablets with software solution named Opon Imo Technology Enhanced Learning Systems (OTELS) were to be distributed to all pupils of senior secondary schools in the state. 

  The OTELS is a stand-alone system, which is installed on Android 4.0 tablets personal computers. It consists of a compelling self-paced series of off-line courses, conducted in a highly interactive computer- based learning environment and synchronised to a library of relevant e-books and a testing environment.

 What makes the project and the availability of tablets attractive is the archival availability of content in terms of questions for the last 10 years for the senior secondary students of all three levels. 

  Since it was envisioned that with the delivery of these tablets, students might not be required to look for physical textbooks, the tablet is enriched with multimedia content including video, images, text and referential material and test questions for practice.

  One of the biggest criticisms that trailed the Opon Imo tablet has been its lack of Internet connectivity, which many see as a big lacuna. But only a short while ago, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the last gubernatorial election in the state, Senator Iyiola Omisore, who promised to review some of the reforms championed by Aregbesola, if voted into office, also alleged that the tablet was replete with errors while uploading of subjects into the it, he claimed was responsible for poor performance of Osun students in the last West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

  According to him, “There are myriads of errors in the learning tablets, most especially in Mathematics, which does not have graphs and log tables, while Chemistry, Biology, Physics and other key subjects lacked necessary inputs.

  “This was the genesis of academic failures and foundation of dismal performances of our children in WASSCE, such that our rating in Osun dropped drastically to 24th position from 13th.

  Notwithstanding the criticisms that the Opon Imo has been subjected to, its proponents say it comes with a groundswell of benefits. For instance, it is claimed that, “There is already a cost savings of around N8.4b by using the digital alternative versus paper textbooks. This is also a great aid for the parents of students who are in public schools as they can refocus a large chunk of their income

  “This initiative will enable knowledge transfer via the use of cutting edge technology. Technology will easily be used and consumed by the arms and people of the state and this will bring a lot of progress to the individual and state.

  In the area of industralisation, they claim that “Of the 150, 000 tablets to be distributed to students, 100, 000 of these will be produced in a factory to be built in the state, in conjunction with Opon Imo foreign technical partners. With this development, it is believed that, many industries and businesses will easily find the adaptive for their projects and business. This blows wide open, the opportunities that can be explored in the State given the growth and adaptation of Science and Technology at all levels.

    “For the student of public schools, the sky becomes their limit. They now have access to their lesson notes, past question papers and much more resources necessary for their mental growth and also virtual examination environment that gets them ready and ensures they excel,” promoters of the device added.

  In addition to this, the government says, “Given the allowance of the use of modern state-of-the-art curriculum and education materials via the use of relevant apps, the success prospect of every child has climaxed in many ways.”

  This and many other benefits perhaps led UNESCO to approach the state government seeking permission to adopt the tablet the e-learning device to boost teaching and learning in public schools.

  UNESCO, in a letter dated November 15, 2014, addressed to the Osun Commissioner for Education, and signed by Director and Representative UNESCO’s Regional Office in Abuja, Prof. Hassana Alidou, said the organisation was impressed and attracted by the components of the Osun e-learning project.

  A statement issued in Osogbo recently by the Director, Bureau of Communications and Strategy, Office of the Governor, also informed that UNESCO also requested to reproduce and adapt the educational learning resource material and content of Opon-Imo to promote it’s educational programmes in Nigeria.

  UNESCO said it was fascinated by the three major content categories of the e-library, the integrated test zone, and the virtual classroom containing 63 books covering civic education, ethics and morals among others. 

  The body further held that the concept and educational contents of Opon Imo were in line with UNESCO’s objective to promote open access to quality education in the country.

  “As you may be aware, UNESCO is a specialised agency of the United Nations with a broad mandate in promoting education, science, culture, communication and information,” the UNESCO letter read in part.

  It continued, “The concept and education content of Opon-Imo is in line with UNESCO objective to promote open access to scientific information, open educational resources and open training platform as well as open distance learning.

  “We acknowledge that the Opon Imo was designed to enhance students’ access to knowledge, sexuality education and entrepreneurship, all of which are within the scope of UNESCO’s educational programme activities in Nigeria”.

The organization, which said it would partner Osun added that the state government would be officially acknowledged by UNESCO and other users as the major source of the e-learning resource materials wherever they are used.

  Commenting on the planned adoption, Deputy Governor/Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Grace Titilayo Laoye-Tomori, said the state is “quite happy with the adoption of the Opon Imo by UNESCO because it is a vindication of the educational reforms going on in the State of Osun.”

  According to the deputy governor, “The reasons given by UNESCO for the adoption were in line with our vision of providing access to education with the use of technology by all students irrespective of their backgrounds or their parents financial status. 

  “ We have realised that lack of access to education is a major problem in this part of the world. And with the introduction of Opon Imo, we have ensured access to education on a single piece of electronic device,” Laoye-Tomori stated.

    She added that the government and indeed the people of the state were certain that the “device would change the way our teachers teach and the way our students learn because we have embedded the device with over 40, 000 past questions, answers as well as reviews to help the students prepare for the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and other examinations in that mould.” 

  The deputy governor who said education was today “on a super highway and the driver is information technology,” added that, “through Opon Imo, we have narrowed the technological divide that existed between the children of the rich and children of the poor. And every student in the State of Osun is enabled to tap into the opportunity of the new information age freely as the device is given free to every student.