The Executive Secretary, Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Hamid Bobboyi, has assured that the Commission would assist state governments in transforming their schools into smart institutions.
He also disclosed plans of the Niger State Government to establish Smart Schools across the state for enhanced delivery of quality education to the citizenry in line with the demands of 21st-century education.
He made this known when he visited Science Model Primary School Chaza Suleja, one of five science model schools that the Niger State Government has decided to convert into smart schools.
The smart schools are designed to offer 21st-century education equipped with comprehensive IT-enabled basic classes that would accommodate preschoolers, primary classes, and junior secondary school classes, fitted with accessories like e-libraries, clinics, and laboratories that make a complete school in the internet age.
Bobboyi added that the smart education programme being championed by UBEC involves building and equipping schools across the country with modern instructional and vocational materials.
He added that the programme would ensure full implementation of e-learning programmes in Basic Education across the country following the challenges occasioned in the sub-sector by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and closure of schools.
The Smart Schools initiative, he said, would take care of Information, Communication and Telecommunication gabs in the training of school children and will be located at zonal, state and senatorial levels all over the country
Chairman, Niger State Universal Basic Education Commission, Muhammad Ibrahim, explained that the state has decided to key into the Smart School programme of the Federal Government to boost access and quality education.
He said the desire of the state government was to upgrade its schools to world class standards and ensure that its young citizens were getting high quality education that would make them compete with their peers in other parts of the world.
Prior to the visit of the Executive Secretary, a team from the Digital Resource Centre of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) led by Hafsat Kontagora arrived at Minna on an inspection visit to the schools to evaluate their readiness to commence smart education.
The team visited the schools in New Bussa, Suleja, Beri, and Lapai.
Commenting on their findings, Kontagora expressed happiness that many state governments had begun to key into the Federal Government’s Smart Schools Programme and were beginning to establish their own smart schools in an attempt to offer high quality 21s century education that focused on igniting creativity, innovation, problem solving and critical thinking.
He said the Federal Government has so far, established 37 smart schools in different parts of the country (one per state and the FCT), with state-of-the-art equipment and befitting buildings, out of which 14 have already commenced teaching and learning activities.
