From Joseph Asegba, Yola
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) supported by Foundation Botnar, has commenced a two-day workshop for 500 corps members on promoting digital learning through the Nigerian Learning Passport (NLP).
The corps members has it’s selection from various schools across the 21 local governments of the state.
According to UNICEF, the goal of the training is to bring digital learning to the door steps of more children across the state as UNICEF intensifies move to ensure all children across the state are captured in the Nigerian Learning Passport.
The training will include digital learning as a modern way by which children can access quality education through platforms like laptops, hand held devices etc which cover multifaceted fields of learning.
The NLP offers interactive simulations and cutting-edge courses in fields such as computer and agricultural science, which empowers the children with the requisite skills for the future.
According report, the NLP was introduced in 2022 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic has around one million users in Nigeria indicating the commitment and resilience of stakeholders towards the advancement of digital learning.
In an interview with journalists in Yola, an education specialist with UNICEF Bauchi field office, Abdurrahman Ibrahim Ado said digital learning has come to stay as it is the future of learning across the globe.
His words, “The reason why we are engaging the corp members is for us to strengthen the digital learning across the schools and at the same time establish what we call learning should take place whether in school or outside school because we had a bitter experience during the COVID-19 pandemic where all activities were shutdown including education.
He said, “That is why we came with the idea of having an alternative learning program and this alternative learning program the LNP is one of them. We have over 15,000 learning points and the idea is to reach each and every child so that he can be enrolled into the platform and after enrollment he would be registered into some certain courses and also complete the courses.”
He noted that, the reason behind the incorporation of corps members in Adamawa State is to augment for the shortfall in the number of teachers adding that the corps members selected are those that are teaching in schools across the state.
“We are engaging the youth corpers especially in the corp members that are serving in schools so that we can leverage on that one year experience they will provide where each corp member will be introduced into Nigerian learning passport so that when they get back to their respective schools where they are serving, they will register more learners into the Nigeria learning passport and also we ensure that the learners are taking courses and also complete the courses. So if we have these engagements I believe their learning outcome will be improved,” he added.
Noting that UNICEF has set up an audacious target to capture all the children of Adamawa State in the NLP in other to ensure learning for all regardless of whether the children are in school or out of schools.
“We want to ensure education for all in Adamawa State. We are targeting all the children and one important thing of note is that the LNP is not only for the children who are in school we have components for children who are out of school at this center we also have another component for those with non formal education like integrated Quranic school so the Nigerian Learning Passport can be applied to all of them and they can also use it.
“We are targeting all the schools not only at basic level but even at the upper basic level that is the senior secondary schools and one thing of note is even the teachers and education administrators can make use of the NLP because there are a lot of simulations and other important resources,” he said.
He noted that to entrench successful digital learning in Adamawa, UNICEF has provided Samsung tablets, routers, projectors and many other equipment for the success of the exercise noting that his organization alongside partners will continue in that stead till all children are covered.
