By Lekan Adejuwon
As part of efforts to boost Teachers’ digital skills, service delivery and efficiency in the basic education sector, the Ekiti State Government has distributed no fewer than 1145 tablet devices to all public primary and junior secondary schools in the State.
The Ekiti State Governor, Mr Biodun Oyebanji while presenting the
tablets to the teachers said, the devices, once connected to BAMIS
(BESDA Attendance Management Information System) application, would aid the teachers and administrators in tracking learners’ attendance through a proper digital attendance monitoring system.
The presentation which was done during the official flag-off ceremony
of a 5 day workshop on Digitalization of Basic Education for Teachers,
SUBEB and LGEA Officials meant that the participants would receive
adequate training on the use of the devices and application.
Governor Oyebanji said that it was imperative to train the participants on the use of the application as the system enables teachers and school administrators to monitor learners’ attendance in real time and with the use of the distributed smart tablet devices, the system collects attendance records, manages, stores and processes
the data.
He harped on the importance of professionalism and continuous skill
acquisition in the teaching profession, stressing that it was
imperative to provide teachers with adequate working tools and for
teachers to be trained and retrained on the modern teaching and
monitoring methods.
The Governor who was represented by the SUBEB Executive Chairman,
Prof. Femi Akinwumi stated that the training on the BAMIS system would
go a long way to eliminating or greatly reducing the Out Of School
Children Phenomenon in the State.
Reiterating the commitment of the Oyebanji led administration to
improving the basic education sector in the State, the Governor
affirmed that his administration would continue to collaborate with
the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Federal Ministry of Education and all other Education stakeholders through the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to improve the skills and capacity of teachers in the basic education sector in the State.
Earlier in his welcome address, the SUBEB Executive Chairman, Prof.
Femi Akinwumi, who was represented by the SUBEB Permanent Secretary,
Mr Afolabi Adebiyi described digitalization as the current approach to solving the existing issues relating to the old method of data gathering and storage.
Prof. Akinwumi stated that it is vital that teachers are equipped with
the necessary training tools that can make them function optimally in
their various teaching-learning activities especially in the modern
ICT generation and that is the reason the devices were procured by the State Government.
The SUBEB Boss urged the beneficiaries to see the devices as
motivation to be more dedicated to their duties, stressing that the
State government has invested in them and they are expected to
reciprocate the gesture by applying all they have learned in improving
basic education in the State.
He also appealed to the participants to cultivate the habit of properly maintaining the tools and equipment provided by government to
justify the huge investment and avoid waste of resources.
The SUBEB Boss affirmed that a strong data base is needed for
education planning and implementation which would in turn provide comprehensive information on the Out of School Children in the State and curbing the phenomenon.
While reiterating the commitment of the Oyebanji led administration to
teachers’ development, he urged the participants to take full advantage of the training to improve their digital skills for overall development of basic education programmes in the State.
In a goodwill message, the UBEC Executive Secretary, Dr. Hammid
Bobboyi who was represented by Mr Yakubu Achimugu , lauded Governor
Oyebanji for always taking advantage of UBEC interventions to elevate the basic education status
