By Fidel Ozugha
Niger State Government has concluded plans to establish Smart Schools across the State. The essence of this is for enhance delivery of quality education to the citizenry which is in line with the demands of 21st-century education. Head, Public Relations and Protocol, UBEC, Mr. David Apeh, conveyed this in a statement in Abuja on Sunday.
Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi, confirmed the development which was disclosed by the State Government. Dr. Bobboyi, expressed the commitment of his commission to assist state governments in the country in transforming their schools to become smart ones.
He made this known when he visited Science Model Primary School Chaza Suleja, which is one of five (5) science model schools which the State Government has decided to convert into smart schools.
Chairman, Niger State Universal Basic Education Commission, Alhaji Muhammad Ibrahim, explained that the Niger State has decided to key into the Smart School programme of the Federal government to boost access and quality education in the state.
According to him, the desire of Niger State Government was to upgrade its schools to world class standards in order to ensure that its young citizens were getting high quality education that would make them compete with their peers in other parts of the country and the world.
The Executive Secretary in an earlier visit with a team from the Digital Resource Centre of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) led by Dr. Hafsat Lawal Kontagora arrived at Minna on an inspection visit to the schools to evaluate their readiness to commence smart education.
Dr. Kontagora, while commenting on their findings, expressed happiness that many state governments had begun to key into the Federal Government’s Smart Schools Programme and were beginning to establish their own smart schools in an attempt to offer high quality 21s century education that focused on igniting creativity, innovation, problem solving and critical thinking.
It would be recalled that the Federal Government has established 37 smart schools in different parts of the country. Each state has one per state as well as the FCT. It has state-of-the-art equipment with befitting buildings. At the time of this reporting,14 of them have already commenced teaching and learning activities.
