WELCOME to another Edition of Passnownow Tweets of the Week. This column summarises our interview with an important personality on Twitter.
Yesterday, we had a chat with Gbenga Sesan – The Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative Nigeria. The discussion was based on The Relevance of ICT in Nigerian Education.
Below are some of his thoughts on the subject.
Note: P for Passnownow, and S for Gbenga Sesan.
P: How would you rate the standard of education during your secondary school days, sure without much ICT relevance?
S: At the time, I thought I got great education but when I started comparing with other locations based on exposure, I saw gaps. The fact that ICT wasn’t an opportunity we had then, presented a challenge for us as graduates in a new economy.
P: What is your take on the current state of Nigeria’s education sector?
S: WOEFUL 🙁 The full “characterized by, expressive of, or causing sorrow or misery” kind of woeful.
P: How would you react to the alarming failure rates constantly recorded in the WAEC and JAMB exams these days?
S: That’s part of the woe I was referring to. The percentage failure rate is enough to demand a state of emergency. Education is an indicator for any country’s efficient use of human resources, global competitiveness and economic sustainability
P: How much do you think e-learning innovation would complement the traditional school/classroom form?
S: e-Learning isn’t only innovation for Nigeria, it’s pretty much the only way out of our current quagmire. I’ll explain, for the size of students we need to take care of, brick/mortar classrooms can’t do the job. We’ve 10M out of school! Also, in terms of quality teachers, there are very few of them. We must multiply them across spaces through ICT. There’s the challenge of those who have so many barriers that won’t allow them to go to school. Take school to them.
P: Is Nigeria really maximizing the vast innovative developments in ICT for learning promotion and teaching excellence?
S: NO. We’re not where we used to be, as there are efforts working on this, but we’re VERY far from where we need to be.
P: Where do you see the fusion of ICT and Education in Nigeria five years from now?
S: By using ICT to map what we teach in the classroom to what the workplace needs, we can improve the curriculum and for post-school relevance, we can use ICT to map what we teach and what career paths and/or industry need. School assessment must use ICT to track true learning recorded by students. Are they marking time or improving?
Instead of Mr Jokotola teaching only few students Mathematics in Idoani, we stream his lectures into more schools. Teacher delivery should benefit from tools that educators can use in class, and to reach students where they are. Delivery can also be helped by the opportunity to multiply great teachers (e.g. Mr. Jokotola) through ICTs. Student enrolment should benefit from the massive (open) online opportunity we have to reach millions instead of few and It’d be evident in our student enrolment, teacher delivery, school assessment and post-school relevance for students.
P: Do you share the notion that ICT with education will be more a distraction to learners for growth than it aides it?
S: ICT tools are never a distraction if they’re not the focus. They bring content, efficiency and more, not cool toys, unfortunately, there has been too much focus on the ICT tools over the opportunities they bring. This has to change.
P: Mention the latest teeth cutting innovations to ease learning that are yet to be adopted in the Nig Education sector?
S: I’ll speak to general applications because there are tons of products out there. There’s shared learning platforms that allow teachers and students to share the same screen so learning is both personal and communal, not limited by blackboards.
P: How much would you say the Government is doing to abet the use of ICT in teaching and learning in Nigeria?
S: Not as much as should be done. In words and documents, there’s a lot out there. However, in practice, it’s near zero.
P: How much do you think the Computer Based Test idea by JAMB is improving the status of the education sector?
S: I’d have expected our students/schools would get better help before the compulsory CBT but maybe it forces adoption. I think our students will now be forced to get help outside, especially for public schools with no ICT equipment.
P: Passnownow launched a mobile education app at Passnownow’s 2014 SMW event, how would you react to this?
S: Every intervention we get in education, through the power of ICTs, is welcome. Kudos to your team for adding value.
P: We duly appreciate your kindness for stopping by to attend to us. Wish you more excellence ahead.
S: Thanks, I enjoyed the chat too.
