COVID-19: DAWN commission partners NGO to drive digital education in Southwest

In response to the shutdown of schools due to the deadly Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria, DAWN Commission on Tuesday took advantage of  the Fourth Industrial Revolution driven by digital technology by entering into a partnership with a non-governmental organisation, Ibironke Adeagbo Foundation (IAF), to revolutionize education through the introduction of e-learning device, especially amongst children from less privileged families in the South West states.

At the official handover ceremony of the devices which was held at the commission’s office, Cocoa House, Dugbe, Ibadan, the Director General of DAWN, Mr Seye Oyeleye noted that the closure of schools in the country, occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic has changed the landscape of education.

The DG assured that the development will not only bridged the increasingly evident digital education divide in the Southwest as pupils cannot continue to stay at home without finding a way for them to continue learning, but also bring education to the people at the lowest affordable cost. He added that the e-learning devices would be used to engage the governors in the region as well as other critical education stakeholders and concerned private individuals and organizations.

Oyeleye emphasized that the aim of introducing the device was to ensure that no child will be left behind because of pandemic, noting that the future of education is digital, and that the future only suddenly arrived with COVID-19.

According to him, “In the quest to make sure that everyone is carried along, we said let us have an irreducible minimum of digital education soon the kids will have access to. Because we know that we can’t afford the high end digital education that is being provided In Europe, we then look at our own peculiarities and say that how can we bring this education to the people at lowest affordable cost.

“So we have to be creative in the ways and manners we can accommodate all our children. How do you get the child in the towns and rural places connected so they don’t miss out on classes. Our pupils had gone home for months and we realised coronavirus is not going to go tomorrow morning and we are not just going to put the kids at home without finding a way for them to continue learning and we live in a part of the world where data for digital education is not that easy to come by. How do we then move forward to make sure that our children at home at thoroughly educated.

“We know without deceiving ourselves that vast majority of our pupils don’t have that luxury of a device and internet. Does that mean we now neglect them? If you neglect them, you are neglecting your future. Here at DAWN commission, our job is to think critically even for the states”.

He disclosed that apart from Ibironke Adeagbo Foundation, the commission also have one or two other organisations that it is working actively with on the digital education project.

Continuing, Oyeleye maintained that though, the device will not be free but it will be very affordable for the states, urging the states to invest in it.

“What we are saying is how can we make it easily accessible? It means that the states need to invest in it. It is something they can easily afford.

” It is partnership. It is preloaded and there is data on it. Our thinking is long term. We are talking to those who will give us the devices and data, even the content providers are not left out. The aim is that no child will be left behind because of pandemic .We shouldn’t say because some kids can’t go to school, then they are left behind. If we do that we are creating trouble for our immediate future,” he concluded

Justifying the NGO’s decision, earlier in his remarks, a trustee of Ibironke Adeagbo Foundation (IAF), Mr. Diran Famakinwa, informed that the foundation decided to partner DAWN commission because they were both working towards ensuring that majority of children who cannot afford the kind of data and electronic means to link up with their schools continue their education.

Famakinwa explained that how states will implement the use of the device would be down to the peculiarities in each state, adding that the device, comes with preloaded school syllabus in reading, writing and mathematics. He stressed that the need for a remote education will have to continue because things have changed and the kind of education before COVID-19 will not be sustainable going forward.

“Fortunately the two organisations are thinking along the same line and we saw good examples in Europe. Europe had free internet access and broadband. We’ve caught the bug of what DAWN commission is doing.

“Lagos State pioneered some mobile devices that come with six preloaded school syllabuses as well as the data credit to be able to make sure that the children while they are remotely at home were able to continue their education .So, in partnership with DAWN, we decided that everything that happened in Lagos, we need to share that broad knowledge across the whole South West region. We invested in purchasing these devices that would be shared across the other states that have not been able to use this and we would be working with them to get a feedback .

“We would be handing them over to the DAWN commission because they have a better logistics to make sure that these get to the true end user. The device is for every child and it comes with preloaded school syllabus as well as the credit. We feel this is a step in the right direction for those children that are currently not able to continue their education and we believe that even When the schools resume which we certainly hope as soon as the government is able to do deal with all the issues.

“The children will still have the need to be able to remotely access their school and be able to continue their education. We are really delighted that we can work in partnership with DAWN on this,” he remarked.

Famakinwa, however urged other stakeholders in the education sector, including philanthropists, clubs, religious organisations and societies to assist in making sure that every child in the region will be able to afford the device.