The Director General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Mallam Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, CCIE, has reaffirmed the Agency’s commitment to continue to partner with Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) on IT development in area of Smart Education.
The DG made this known Thursday, during a courtesy visit by the Executive Secretary of Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) Dr. Hamid Bobboyi and his team to the corporate headquarters of NITDA.
“Technology drives almost everything we do today, to succeed as a country we need to infuse the system with information technology from the primary school level’’, said Abdullahi, adding that there is need to,” catch them young”.
“At NITDA we are inspired to align with the modern trend of technological advancement” he said as he enumerated the Agency’s newly launched Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan (SRAP 2021-2024) towards achieving digital transformation for a digital Nigeria which is in line with the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari’s National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS).
The DG highlighted the seven pillars of NITDA’s Strategic Roadmap and Action Plan as; Developmental Regulations, Digital Literacy and skills, Digital Transformation, Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Cybersecurity, Emerging Technologies, and Promotion of Indigenous Content.
He further identified that the Digital Literacy and skills as a focus area for UBEC to collaborate with NITDA through implementation of training processes and also to provide technical support to enable UBEC design a unique framework to achieve a digital economy.
The DG elaborated on the importance of capacity building and the need to ensure continuous identification of emerging skills to stay abreast with the global trend.
“Earlier this year, we launched the pilot edition of the National Adopted School for Smart Education (NASSE),” he said.
He explained that the project, in partnership with AMAC, is geared towards deploying one of the indigenous cloud based digital education solution based on the National Education Research Development Council (NERC) curriculum.
He advised that for a cloud based digital solution whereby the students are empowered through the provision of smart devices with the help of local manufacturers to make easy the learning procedures even beyond the classrooms.
Abdullahi noted that sustainability of the process after implementation is of great importance towards actualizing a digital transformation. He therefore proffered the formation of a committee to work on the modalities of operation.
Earlier in his remarks, UBEC Executive Secretary recounted briefly, the history of the evolution of technology and how immense progress has been achieved throughout the world with the advancement of technology.
“The importance of the integration of Information Technology for the advancement of education in order to remain relevant in the 21st century can never be overemphasized”, he argued.
He further appreciated the immense contribution of NITDA in promoting a digital Nigeria and the past contributions to UBEC. In his prayers, he implored the Agency to further assist in proffering measures adoptable to ensure that Information Technology is integrated fully into the school system.
