An Information Communication Technology expert, Oladayo Akinpelumi, on Wednesday advocated the use of an e-learning application, mAcademy, for the development of education in Nigeria,
Mr Akinpelumi said the country’s educational system had lost relevance since in the 90s, suggesting that ICT is the only leverage upon which teaching and learning could be salvaged, especially on the 10 million out-of-school children living across the country.
The expert, who stated this during the official launching of the e-learning platform in Abuja, called on the government to take seriously the country’s educational system by using technology to fine-tune the process.
Highlighting the usefulness of the platform, Mr Akinpelumi, who is also the Product Lead for Bilyak Consulting – the developers of the app, said mAcademy is a platform whereby teachers upload their contents for students and other users to access these contents at an affordable cost of N100 for 7 days.
“The platform has about 98 categories cutting across 400 different courses. We have course for kids from age 18 downward, no limitation of ages.
“We also have materials for JAMB, WAEC, NABTEB and even Post UTME. We as well have the tester module where teachers can actually use to train themselves.
“Also, as an incentive to further boost the teaching and learning among the Nigerian populace, we have launched mAcademy Grants where we give out some financial rewards every month to at least 10 students who access our platform and complete certain courses.
“We have additionally launched the Free Teens Educational Application available on android and IOS platforms for kids in pre-school, nursery, and primary schools for children,” he added.
Speaking further on how children especially at the rural areas could benefit from the platform, Mr Akinpelumi said, “the platform works in any device that has access to the internet. Be it mobile, PC and host of others, the platform is user-friendly.
Lending his voice, an internationally acclaimed spoken-word artist and performance poet, Dike Chukwumerije, who performed his poem titled: ‘Education: A key to success in Nigeria’, emphasized that giving people free access to education without regard to gender and class is the sure way of guaranteeing a better society.
“When you give poor people access to the same quality of education with the rich, you are not only giving them the capacity to change their socio-economic situation, you are as well giving them the capacity to moderate how they express grievance over that socio-economic circumstance.
“So, for the country that is already divided over faith and religion, neglecting the education of the generality of its people is not just asking for trouble but guaranteeing it,” Mr Chukwumerije added.
