Osun: Enhancing Education Through Technology

The Education sector in Osun State has again received a boost as public schools are being equipped with technology devices to enhance education and make learning conducive for both teachers and students. The boost is coming on the heels of the recent intervention by Governor Rauf Aregbesola, whose administration doled out electronic learning devices otherwise known as “Opon Imo” to students and teachers in public schools in the state.
The latest improvement in learning in the Living Spring State courtesy of MultiChoice Nigeria includes the opening of resource centres in 10 public schools across the state. 50 teachers selected from the benefiting schools were also trained in the use of the equipments. The component learning accessories provided under the project for each school include DSTV decoder and accessories, television set, Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS), surge protector, whiteboard, burglary protector for the equipment, generator, chairs and tables as well as education bouquet comprising of seven channels.
The benefiting schools are Unity School, Ejigbo; Ijebu-Jesa Grammar School, Ijebu-jesa and those in Osogbo, the state capital are: Anglican Grammar School, ADS Grammar School, Islahudeen Grammar School, St. James Grammar School, Ataoja School of Science, Osogbo Grammar School, Baptist Girls High School and Laro Grammar School.
Speaking at the launch held at Ataoja School of Science, Head, Public Relations and Communication, MultiChoice, Segun Fayose said the initiative was part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in giving back to the society.
He explained that the company believes in quality education because through education, students can achieve their goal, be independent even as the country can also attain sustainable development. He declared that with the Osun launch, the company has established 254 resource centres in 25 states of the federation.
While urging the teachers and students to make the best use of the opportunity he said, “This project is a way of impacting the community that has been playing host to us. With this launch, Osun State becomes the 25^th state to benefit from this initiative. We urge the teachers to encourage students to use the centre to increase their learning and their knowledge about the world.”
On her part, Managing Director, Innovative Technology Literacy Services Ltd, Aderonke Bello said technology investment has increased in the last decade. While declaring that most schools still rely on teachers and textbooks, she affirmed that technology cannot replace textbooks saying that “technology learning environment has helped education. Audio-visual equipment will help classroom teaching and equip the students. We want teachers that would be a guide in the side and ensure students are open to more instruction. The education bouquet provided by this facility will bring abstract to the real world and we want the teachers that have been taught on how to use the device to teach others in the schools in case of transfer.”
While commending the gesture, Principal of the school, Dr. Titi Adeagbo said, “MultiChoice gave us things our students would benefit in science and other subjects. We will use the centre for the purpose. We will use it as we have been trained and we know our parents will also assist us.”
Commissioning the centre, Mrs. Titi Laoye-Tomori, the Deputy Governor who is also Commissioner of Education, said the initiative was to support the government efforts towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) especially in the Nigeria education sector.
“The distributed accessories to the selected schools as well as the training of the teachers reaffirm further the commitment of this administration to providing qualitative education to the entire students of the state and to sustain the high level of educational development attained through laudable programme of this nature. Achieving this will keep our student abreast of happening on the global scene through methodical teaching and learning so introduced by this project.”
She enjoined the managements of the benefiting school to maximise the utilisation of the learning resources in order to broaden the scope of knowledge of the students. She assured that the Ministry of Education would continue to monitor the performance of the centres as partner to MultiChoice to ensure continuity of the project.
She urged the students to, “always try to be the best in whatever you are asked to do. To us, education is very important, we have education of our students at the front burner and we know our students will excel. We are expecting much from you and we know you won’t disappoint us.”
MultiChoice resource centres in Nigerian schools has improved science and technology education among teachers and students. It has also boost the knowledge of satellite technology among students whereby some of them had competed favourably with their counterparts in other African countries and won awards.
DAILY INDEPENDENT