Emma Okonji
The federal government has said it is working with state governments and some development partners to improve the country’s education system by making it more digitally accessible as part of its response to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sector.
Senior Special Assistant on Education Interventions to President Muhammadu Buhari, Obafela Bank-Olemoh, who disclosed it, said going forward, one of the key areas that Nigerians are going to see a lot of funding from both the federal and state governments towards the education sector, would be in the area of devices. “How do we get cheap and affordable devices into the hands of school students? It’s a key thing that we are working on,” he said.
Bank-Olemoh who spoke at MTN Nigeria’s The Revv Programme masterclass on ‘Education without Borders and Boundaries’, said: “The Revv Programme is an initiative from MTN Nigeria to help small businesses rethink and relearn their operations to enable them mitigate against the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic using a four-pronged approach that includes master classes, access to market, productivity tools support and advisory initiatives.
“Nigeria’s education sector has been one of the most affected by the pandemic. Since the government instituted lockdown to slow the spread of the coronavirus, schools across the country have remained closed. The federal and state governments plan to have the resumption happen soon; however, no date has been fixed.”
According to him, the COVID-19 pandemic compelled state and federal governments, along with development partners, to rethink Nigeria’s education system. “The reality has changed how we do education whether at the state or federal level. Whether we like it or not, we have to provide devices for our children; this is because if something like this happens the second time, we can’t make the excuse of not planning for it,” Bank-Olemoh said.
