By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
To mark the Day of the African Child , the United Nations Children Fund, UNICEF, has said that an inclusive digital learning process is passport to quality educational development for children in Nigeria.
UNICEF called on Government and stakeholders to exploit the inherent opportunities in digitalization for learning and development of the Nigerian children.
In a statement to mark the 2023 Day of the African Child, with the theme, ‘The Rights of the Child in a Digital environment “, UNICEF said, ‘ it offers us to opportunity to advocate for digital inclusiveness for all children – the right of every child to participate in the digital space. ”
To bring quality education closer to Nigerian children, UNICEF disclosed it partnered wth the Federal Ministry of Education to launch the Nigerian Learning Passport, NLP, last year .
UNICEF said,” To bridge the access to quality learning opportunities, UNICEF and the Federal Ministry of Education launched the Nigeria Learning Passport (NLP) last year, an online, mobile, and offline digital learning platform powered by Microsoft that enables continuous access to 15,000 curriculum aligned learning and training materials in local languages for learners, teachers, and parents.”
“It is highly flexible and adaptable, allowing states, schools, teachers, parents, and other users to adapt it easily and quickly as their learning management system in school, for homework support and to ensure continuity of learning when schools are closed in emergency contexts .”
“The NLP is inclusive enough to bridge the digital divide because of the availability of an offline module that allows for deployment in rural and hard-to-reach environments where there is no access to the internet”
” UNICEF said it has provided 780 schools in hard-to-areas and rural schools with 13,500 tablets, 1,000 smart rechargeable projectors and 780 Airtel internet routers. Connectivity has been enabled for 186 schools through a partnership with IHS towers and data costs removed through the whitelisting of the NLP on an Airtel SIM card. ”
“So far, since its inception, the Nigeria Learning Passport has provided access to quality teaching and learning resources to 280,000 learners, teachers, parents and young people. ”
UNICEF lamented that Nigeria educational system is fraught with many challenges , like access to quality learning which is inhibited by low domestic spending on education resulting in limited school infrastructure and qualified teachers. Others like high levels of poverty and social norms not supportive of education especially for Girls.
These challenges are further heightened by attacks on schools and abduction of learners, making parents fearful of sending their children to school.
According to UNICEF, the disruption to education by school attacks has made millions of children to significantly missed out on learning they would have acquired if they had been in the classroom.
“More than 10 million children are not in school at the primary level. For those in school, the quality of learning is poor; 75 per cent of primary school age pupils are unable to read with understanding or solve a simple math problem. ”
The NLP is highly flexible and adaptable, as it allows all states, schools, teachers, parents, and other users to adapt to it easily and quickly as learning management system in school, for homework support and to ensure continuity of learning when schools are closed in emergency contexts .
The NLP is inclusive enough to bridge the digital divide because of the availability of an offline module that allows for deployment in rural and hard-to-reach environments where there is no access to the internet.
UNICEF revealed that it has provided 780 schools in hard-to-areas and rural schools with 13,500 tablets, 1,000 smart rechargeable projectors and 780 Airtel internet routers.
“Connectivity has been enabled for 186 schools through a partnership with IHS towers and data costs removed through the whitelisting of the NLP on an Airtel SIM card. ”
The NLP is highly flexible and adaptable, as it allows states, schools, teachers, parents, and other users to adapt it easily and quickly as their learning management system in school, for homework support and to ensure continuity of learning when schools are closed in emergency contexts
“Since its inception, the Nigeria Learning Passport has provided access to quality teaching and learning resources to 280,000 learners, teachers, parents and young people. ”
The global Child organization disclosed that a Result user satisfaction survey that was conducted involving 5,002 respondents, 92 per cent of them mentioned that they are using the platform more than once, 51 per cent mentioned that they used it daily and 63 per cent mentioned that they access the platform from home.
“Additionally, 95 per cent of these respondents mentioned that the content meets their needs, 76 per cent said that they learnt new things and 91 per cent (9 in 10 persons) said that the NLP supported their education.”
To concretize results from the learning techni, project astudent testifying from the survey said, “NLP helped me to gain a lot about the topics I don’t understand in school” while a parent said, “I can prepare my kids ahead of their lesson and also follow up on what they are being taught” and a teacher testify that “NLP improves my knowledge, it improves my teaching skills.”
UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Cristian Munduate, emphasized, “Digital technology provides us with a platform to innovate and seek ways for inclusive quality education for all children.”
“I urge all stakeholders in the education sector to adopt and take the Nigeria Learning Passport to scale to reduce the number of children not receiving any education in Nigeria. ”
It will also improve foundational literacy and numeracy”, she noted.
