Edo not phasing out Obaseki’s educational tablets, says SUBEB boss
The Edo State Government has refuted claims that it was phasing out the educational tablets introduced by the immediate past government of Godwin Obaseki to boost the e-learning programme.
The Executive Chairman of the Edo State Universal Basic Education, Mrs Onomen Goodness Briggs, who disclosed in Benin on Monday, said the state was only replacing the content in the tablets.
The e-learning programme introduced by the immediate past government involved using digital tablets and uniformed lesson plans by teachers to teach basic school children, from primary to junior secondary schools, as part of the Edo Best programme.
Briggs said the need to replace the content was due to the obsolete nature of the Universal Basic Education curriculum at the time the contents were created by the immediate past government.
She also disclosed that the tablets are for Edo State, while the contents are for consultants employed by the past government to run the programme.
She added that officials of Information and Communications Technology were already creating a portal for the contents, assuring that when finished, the state government has the potential of selling the portal to other states as well as other countries for revenue generation.
She said, “I want to clarify that we are not phasing out the tablets, but we are only replacing the contents in line with the current Universal Basic Education curriculum. The curriculum that was operating when the tablet was introduced by the immediate past government is obsolete, so we are currently developing new content to replace that.
“The tablets the teachers are using belong to Edo State, and when you hear that they are withdrawing the tablet, it is not the tablet that they are withdrawing but the contents.
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“The EdoBest issue is that the contents are the consultants’ property and not for Edo State. So, for retaining it, it means we are going to keep the consultants in the state forever and ever for us to keep using those contents.
“It is about the contents and not the containers. The container is our own (tablets). We have already bought it, even though it is not in all schools in the State, “she said.
The SUBEB boss also disclosed that in collaboration with staff, the board has been able to create its own contents.
She added, “In collaboration with my teams, we have been able to create our own content. Even right now, by the grace of God, by the time we finish, those in charge of the ICT will have created a portal.
“So, we have gotten a set of intelligent people among the civil servants. They are not from outside. They are all SUBEB staff.
“They picked from the National Curriculum, picked from the Scheme of works, they used our books that have been approved and got the content out, and now you can still teach across the board the same thing.
“When we finish, Edo State can start selling it to other states and other countries, and start making money,” she added.
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