Emma Okonji
National Senior Secondary School Education Commission (NSSEC), has partnered Africa’s Leading EdTech Not for Profit Organisation, Coderina Education and Technology Foundation, to unlock Nigeria’s human capital development by enabling teachers to prepare students for the Fourth Industrial revolution (4IR).
The partnership is a huge step toward fulfilling the commission’s mandate to reposition the country’s education system in alignment with the future of work requirements.
Selected teachers from all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory participated in the SAP Africa Code Week Train the Trainer program, with over 300 teachers trained over one week.
The program equips teachers with computational Thinking and an introduction to the MIT Scratch visual coding environment, designed to make coding a “child’s play” for young learners.
The Executive Secretary of the Commission Prof. Benjamin Abakpa, said repositioning the education system would start with providing teachers with the proper education and tools to prepare students adequately.
“Teacher education is one key area that the NSSEC will focus on, among other necessary initiatives, to help fulfill its mandate.
“As we work to raise a tech-savvy generation of students, we must also raise a generation of tech-savvy teachers. Coding should be part of the education curriculum, like other literacy and numeracy subjects. Coding is as much about creativity as it is about math, science, and problem-solving,” Abakpa said.
He expressed joy over the high level of interest the Training The Trainer (TTT) program has engendered and the fantastic cooperation between the commission and the State Education Ministries that led to the success of the initiative.
Chairman, Board of Trustees at Coderina, Femi Niyi, said: “In response to the future of work, education must evolve to support teachers in developing individual student potential and preparing students to become lifelong learners so they can innovate tomorrow’s world and solve real-life problems in their communities.”
The SAP Africa Code week, the most extensive digital literacy on the continent of Africa, is designed to demystify coding and make it a learned skill for students. However, achieving this would require teacher training and transformation from traditional teaching styles to pedagogy that supports the acquisition of 21st century skills and competencies necessary in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).
