The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) are set to partner on the promotion of Information Technology (IT) development to power smart education in Nigeria.
The director-general of NITDA, Mallam Kashifu Abdullahi, made this known when he received the top management staff of UBEC led by the executive secretary, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja, stressing NITDA’s commitment to partner the commission to develop IT for the education sector.
“Technology drives almost everything we do today, to succeed as a country we need to infuse the system with information technology from the primary school level. There is need to catch them young. At NITDA we are inspired to align with the modern trend of technological advancement,” he said.
The NITDA boss enumerated the agency’s newly launched Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2021-2024) towards achieving digital transformation for a digital Nigeria which, according to him, is in line with President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS).
He highlighted the seven pillars of NITDA’s Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan as developmental regulations, digital literacy and skills, digital transformation, digital innovation and entrepreneurship, cybersecurity, emerging technologies and promotion of indigenous content.
Abdullahi further identified digital literacy and skills as a focus area for UBEC to collaborate with NITDA through implementation of training processes and also to provide technical support to enable UBEC design a unique framework to achieve a digital economy, even as he elaborated the importance of capacity building and the need to ensure continuous identification of emerging skills to stay abreast with the global trend.
Earlier this year, he said NITDA launched the pilot edition of the National Adopted School for Smart Education (NASSE), saying the project done in partnership with AMAC was geared towards deploying one of the indigenous cloud- based digital education solution based on the National Education Research Development Council (NERC) curriculum.
He called for a cloud-based digital solution whereby the students are empowered through the provision of smart devices with the help of local manufacturers to make easy the learning procedures even beyond the classrooms.
Saying sustainability of the process after implementation is of great importance towards actualizing a digital transformation, Abdullahi voted for the formation of a committee to work on the modalities of operation.
Earlier in his remarks, Bobboyi recounted the history of the evolution of technology and how immense progress has been achieved throughout the world with the advancement of technology.
“The importance of the integration of Information Technology for the advancement of education in order to remain relevant in the 21st century can never be overemphasized,” he emphasized.
He expressed appreciation for what he called immense contribution of NITDA in promoting a digital Nigeria and the past contributions to UBEC, even as he implored the agency to further assist in proffering measures adoptable to ensure that information technology is integrated fully into the school system.
