By Chimezie Godfrey
The need for innovations and creativity to change the nation’s education outlook for the better was re-emphasized by the Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency NITDA, Kashifu Inuwa, at the state Polytechnic in Hadejia, Jigawa State.
The DG, while speaking at the maiden National Conference on Functional Education at Bilyaminu Polytechnic, Hadejia, organized by the Center for Semi Arid Research and Development said, “It is important to seek to explore the benefits of innovations and creativity in order to bring about functional education system for the country.”
He mentioned that the lessons learnt during the COVID-19 lockdown should be taken to the next level to further the course of education by leveraging on the advancement in technology to address specific problems inhibiting the progress of the sector.
“Platforms like Edtech have become a global phenomenon that integrates strategies, instructional practices in education and digital tools to bring about the emerging trends that demonstrators in academia apply to build knowledge based society,” he said.
He noted that other platforms that could be handy includes; Artificial intelligence, Internet of things, 5G technology, Blockchain, Virtual and mix realities, among others.
Rolling out statistics, the DG stated that Nigeria is ware-housing about 28% of education technology companies on the African Continent with technology startups generating about 3.46million Dollars in 2020.
This, he added, signifies that the country is not left behind in innovations and creativity in the education sector to support sustainable development in the country.
According to Kashifu, NITDA had already identified innovations and creativity as critical tools for implementing the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy NDEPS, aimed at driving home the nation’s prosperity.
He said, one of such steps is the NITDA’s launching of National Adopted School for Smart Education initiative which seeks to inculcate the use of technology in teaching and learning to promote massive access to quality education especially at the grassroots.
He explained further that the Agency is now entrenching co-creation education approach by ensuring that the approach to teaching is shifted from traditional and uni-directional, to a style where both the teacher and students can create value together through digital technologies and innovations platforms that allow for sharing and engagement learning.
In his remarks, the Rector, Binyaminu Polytechnic Professor Zulkiflu Abdu, while addressing the participants, described as apt, the theme of the conference; “Functional Education and Demand Research for sustainable Development”, noting that, Nigeria’s multifaceted development challenges can surely be addressed by the adoption of research based technological innovations and creativity in the education sector.
He commended the DG NITDA for giving Nigeria the direction to navigate through the storm that was stirred by COVID-19 pandemic. Professor Zulkiflu said, at the end of this conference, a pathway to realizing sustainable development will be unbounded with demand driven research as a major pillar.
