Experts have called for the use of technology to transform the educational curriculum of Nigeria in line with the fourth industrial revolution.
They made the appeal at the 5th Edition of ICTEL EXPO 2019 held in Lagos on Wednesday and organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).
The theme of the event was: “Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Nigerian Story’’.
According to Chijoke Eke, the Chief Executive Officer, Sidmach Technologies,who was represented by Mr Charles Billyfrank, Head of Sales, Sidmach, said that despite the increase in global literacy, Nigeria still had about 13.2 million out-of-school children.
He noted that a recent report showed that 60 per cent of those children were in Northern Nigeria.
“Nonetheless, Nigeria is also reported by UNICEF to have over 66.8 per cent youth literacy rate. This figure is expected to rise as education begins to improve with the adoption of technology”.
“Technology has been introduced into the Nigerian educational landscape as far back as 1932 when simple teaching aids were used. However, typewriters and broadcast programmes were the most important until the early nineties when more innovative technology began to be introduced into the system,’’ he said.
Eke said that several changes had happened in the way education was served in the last 400 years; from curriculum, to assessment and mode of teaching.
He said that interestingly, classrooms had not changed; the structures have remained the same from one generation to another.
“A lot of educational institutions in Nigeria have yet to adopt ICT in their teaching methods”.
“On the other hand, some others are adopting the `wait and see’ approach. The rest of the world is far ahead in technological advancement in education. This calls for serious concern as we continue to strive toward raising globally-competitive students”, Eke said.
He said that the world was changing fast, saying that Nigeria must not be left behind.
“Education has played an important role in discovering technology. It is time we adopt technology to transform education in Nigeria and give the coming generation a chance to become world beaters,’’ Eke said.
Mr Maxwell Ogunfuyi, the Chief Technical Officer at Scholarx, an education financing company, said that the Nigerian educational curriculum should be tailored toward new technological trends.
“Most students are attached to their mobile phones, which showed that the future of learning is a personalised learning, that is connected to mobile devices”.
“Also the educational curriculum should be project-based. That way, we can have the capacity to solve problems and build skill that will facilitate technology,’’ Ogunfuyi said. (NAN)
