….to establish Education Development Center
By Adeyinka Adeniran
Oyo State government, through the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, has expressed its readiness to partner Odu’a Investment Foundation on its flagship Digital Education for Innovation and Economic Development (DEFINED) Project, to promote the digital education and inclusive innovation among the Secondary School Students in the State.
The Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology,Prof Salihu Adelabu made the disclosure at the launch of Digital Education for Innovation and Economic Development (DEFINED) organized by the Odu’a Investment Foundation, held at the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.
Prof. Adelabu explained that the Ministry is planning to have an Education Development Center (EDC) that will be used to build the capacity of the Teachers and other stakeholders in the education sector of the state.
He hinted that the center will focus on building the capacity of the teachers in Information Communication Technology (ICT),adding that this will afford them to impact the ICT knowledge into the students.
The Commissioner stated further that the ministry intend to start catching them young for students in the state on digitization and ICT to further enhance their education skills.
He said : The Ministry is planning to have, Education Development Center, (EDC). This centre will be used to build the capacity of our teachers and other education stakeholders. If we have education development centres in the ministry, the ICT component will be attached and the department is dedicated to applied sciences at the ICT, and we will work with other ICT gurus to begin to develop the ICT capacity of our teachers.
“ You cannot give what you don’t have, the moment we started drilling our teachers, and they start to acquire the capacity, it becomes seamless for them to impact that knowledge into our secondary school children.
“We equally want to partner with Odu’a Investment Company, their foundation group, on the digitalization for innovation economic development.
‘We want to start with our children in the form of a catch-them young project and luckily enough, we have a few schools where the students are doing pretty well, few of them are Government College Ibadan, (GCI), Emmanuel Alayande, School of Science, Olivet Baptist High School and many of others.So, between now and the first quarter of next year, we should begin to actualize the use of digitalization education in our secondary schools.
The ‘DEFINED’ project is conceptualized to develop the digital capacity of the youths in a radical holistic way and build a future of tech-savvy, transformative entrepreneurs across South-west Nigeria.
“A key content of this initiative is the development of a comprehensive education curriculum spanning the first 12 years of education (Primary 1 to Senior Secondary School (SSS) 3) in alignment with the Nigerian education system.
This curriculum will seamlessly integrate digital skills and technologies across subjects, ensuring that young people are equipped with relevant knowledge and competencies from an early age.
The programme was witnessed by the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Mr.Olusanjo Adeniyi, Permanent Secretary,TESCOM,Mr. Kafari Babajide, Director Applied Science and Technology, Mr. Adebayo Adekunle,Oyo State Secondary School Students and a host of others.
