By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
Inline with global trends of E-learning Bauchi State Government, with support from UNICEF and other partners have launched the Nigeria Learning Passport (NLP) to bring knowledge closer to students of both primary and secondary schools in the state.
The move which also intends to build ICT capacity for teacher and increase enrolment of children in schools, is a collaboration between the State Ministry of Education, UNICEF and other key partners.
Under the system which is targeting fifty million children and twelve million direct and indirect teachers across the country, an online application was designed and uploaded with sixty thousand learning contents to address the challenges of limited instructional materials.
Major Network Service providers such as MTN, Airtel and Glo have allocated free data and airtime for accessing the contents as part of their corporate social responsibilities as education managers, parents and other relevant stakeholders were asked to key into the new learning regime.
Launching the programme on Thursday 28th July, 2022, at the Government House Bauchi, Governor Bala Mohammed, represented by Secretary to the State government Barrister Ibrahim Kashim said the state is ready to participate and support the full implementation of the Nigeria Learning Passport initiative.
The Governor said that ICT has not only made business and communications easy, it has also come to make education delivery easier by overcoming unsurmountable challenges which have stagnated its progress in the past five decades.
He reiterated that, “ICT has provided the world with computers, tablets, applications, online content/teaching and all that is needed to put learning within reach of every citizen. What remains is the will and the ingenuity to utilize the opportunity maximally”.
In a good will message during the launching, the Chief of UNICEF Bauchi Field office Dr. Tushar Rane explained that the Learning Passport -a digitally compliant learning mechanism has a critical role is ensuring we reach our goal adding that, it is an easy to use, and easily deployed platform that enables children to access resources anytime, anywhere online and offline, making it fit for use in remote rural areas, where connectivity must not be at the best.
The Learning Passport will reach children in pre-primary, primary and secondary education levels with learning materials in major languages in Nigeria including English and Hausa.
With the apparent advancement in technology, the Learning Passport presents us opportunity to re-imagine education and enhance digital access for learners in Bauchi State.
He stressed that, “As we launch this innovative solution today, I call on all stakeholders: parents, government, community leaders, the media and other partners, to provide the relevant support for a full roll-out across the state”.
Earlier in a welcome remark, the state commissioner for education Dr. Aliyu Tilde expressed his appreciation to all the parties that made the new innovation in learning a reality.
He said the innovation is not only timely but long overdue and further expressed his optimism that it will increase enrolment, retention and the completion in both primary and secondary school level.