By Blessing Otobong-Gabriel
The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) through its Country Director Mr. Son Sungil has handed over the second batch of 2,340 digital educational content materials and digital content development & utilization guideline to the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).
Recalled that 1,662 educational video clips and 900 digital educational content materials were already handed over to UBEC on October 28, 2024, bringing it to a total of 3,240 digital educational content materials
The ceremony, which was held at the UBEC’s Digital Resource Centre in Abuja, marks a significant milestone in the Smart Education project, a collaborative initiative between KOICA and UBEC that began in 2021.
Sungil said this project has received generous support from the Korean government, with a substantial grant of $10.4 million aimed at enhancing Nigeria’s basic education through smart technologies.
“The digital contents which are targeted at Primary 4-6 pupils and Junior Secondary School (JSS) 1 students, focuses on mathematics and science subjects to help improve teaching and learning outcome in the classrooms, as well as increase pupils/students interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects. The educational digital contents are expected to be disseminated across the 37 smart schools and other public schools in Nigeria”.
“What’s most interesting is that the 2,340 digital educational content materials were developed by 70 teachers from 6 Smart schools supported by KOICA (Kano, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Ekiti, Cross River and FCT), proving their expertise from the various KOICA sponsored training they have received in Korea and in Nigeria”.
Speaking at the handover ceremony the Mr. Son stated that “This ceremony represents our shared commitment to quality education in Nigeria and excellent collaboration between KOICA and UBEC. It is my hope that the content will help the teachers to deliver better learning experience and outcome for the students”
While receiving the content on behalf of the UBEC, the National Coordinator of the Smart school Program, Professor Bashir Galadanci stated that UBEC will ensure that the content and guidelines are judiciously utilized in the smart schools and other schools across Nigeria.
To ensure a continuous development of quality educational contents in Smart schools, KOICA provided series of capacity building training for teachers and school principals on how to record, edit and develop digital contents for classroom teaching. KOICA also installed modern Content Development Studios (CDS) with state of art equipment for producing digital contents in KOICA-Supported Smart schools namely: Kano, Cross River, Bauchi, Ekiti, Nasarawa and FCT.
