The Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has pledged to upscale the KOICA Education Project in Nigeria, a smart school initiative, from six pilot states to 36 states and the FCT.
Mr David Nkwa, the Manager of KOICA, made this known in an interview with newsmen on the sidelines of the closing ceremony of the pilot phase in Abuja on Monday.
According to him, the project is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the five-year pilot project is being implemented across Kano, Bauchi, Nasrawa, Cross River, Ekiti and the FCT, where a school is adopted and equipped with digital gadgets to aid smart learning.
Nkwa explained that the project was a collaboration between Nigerian and Korean governments, and designed to improve quality education and learning outcomes in Nigeria’s basic education.
He said that the partnership, managed by KOICA and the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), is valued at 10 million dollars and implemented by UBION Consortium.
“So far, I can tell you that in the last five years of working the project, we have been able to achieve improved learning outcomes in the classrooms based on the evaluations that we have carried out doing school comparison.
“We are able to see that students from the smart schools have performed better, especially in mathematics and science subjects than students from other schools,” he said.
Prof. DeaJoon Hwang, the Project Manager of UBION Consortium, said it had impacted on the capacity of education officials and managers in the management of smart schools by facilitating roundtables with experienced Korean counterparts.
He said there was evidence of over 140 per cent improvement in mathematics and science performance of students in primary and junior secondary school as a result of the intervention.
Hwang said that to sustain the achievement of the projects, there was need for parents and local communities’ involvement, as well as continuous training of teachers.
He said that, going forward, they would organise a community of parents, and organise international conferences to boost the value of smart education in the country.
Hwang said that the project was initially scheduled to end in December but it was now rescheduled to end in August as KOICA was in a hurry to upscale due to the success recorded in the pilot phase.
Mr Tosin Odedele, the Project Coordinator, UBION Consortium, said that support was provided to six schools across the selected states.
According to him, infrastructure such as content development studio, digital smart boards, tablets, laptops, internet facilities, solar power and backup generators for electricity were supplied and installed.
He explained that the initiative was to bring about digital transformation in basic education in the country.
Odedele said that the capacity of teachers and school managers on smart education were built through foreign and local training.
“It is basically our traditional classroom now going digital, so instead of the teacher writing on the board and then teaching them from the board, the children now actually have their materials in digital format animation and then live recording with which they can relate to more.
“Children at that particular age relate more with animated content so they are able to learn faster, easier and they are also able to improve in their learning process.
“So this project has largely been successful, we are hoping that with the support of UBEC, we will commence the second phase whereby we want to now scale up from six schools to about 37 schools across the country,” he said.
Earlier in her remarks, the Executive Secretary of UBEC, Ms Aisha Garba, said the project provided multimedia learning environment and teaching capacity building targeting Nigeria’s public primary and junior secondary schools.
She recalled that the project began in 2021, when Nigeria was confronted with sobering realities of over 10.1 million school-age children were out of school.
The UBEC boss said 70 per cent of those enrolled lacked foundational learning skills, and more than 60 per cent of public primary school teachers did not possess basic digital literacy.
Garba said that the project reflected the spirit of the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu and aligned with the Nigeria Education Sector Renewal Initiative (NESRI) a national blueprint for revitalising education.
“In collaboration with KOICA and other strategic partners, we developed Nigeria’s first Smart Education Master Plan, trained over 300 teachers and school leaders, established six world class Content Development Studios, and created nearly 4,000 digital learning contents in Mathematics and Science.
“This is in addition to the independent effort undertaken by the commission to build 37 UBE Model Smart Schools, one in each state and FCT, six of which KOICA intervened and supported.
“Although KOICA’s focus is in six smart schools, the outcome of the project has reached over 8,000 learners in 21 states where the smart schools are fully operational,” she said.
Garba stressed that the figures were more than numbers as lives were touched, futures reshaped, and a growing belief that Nigeria’s public schools could compete globally.
“This project is a model of the kind of partnership we must foster; education should not and cannot remain the sole responsibility of government.
“Strategic partnerships are essential to delivering equitable, inclusive, and high-quality education to all Nigerian children.
“We are witnessing what is possible when government, development partners, and communities come together with a shared vision,” she said.
Miss Fadilat Usman, a student of UBEC Smart School in Bauchi State, said that the project changed the regular classrooms into a very interactive space.
She said that she had struggled with the use of blackboards, open and notebooks but was now finding learning with digital tools like smart boards, tablets and online sources easier.
“This will continue to shape our world with technology-driven change of the 21st century for which we are grateful,” she said.
