By Adedapo Adesanya
The gap that exists in acquiring knowledge and creating an affordable, accessible, and quality education environment can be bridged with the application of new technology, this is according to the vision of Verraki Partners, a business solutions company focused on accelerating the development and transformation of Africa.
During an address at the grand finale of the national design competition, Professor Ayodele Awojobi Design Competition (PAADC), held at the University of Lagos recently, Senior Partner and Head of the Ventures Unit of Verraki, Mr Kelvin Balogun, asserted that the reason why Nigeria has seemingly intractable challenges is because the country has not sufficiently applied new technology in tackling some issues in the sector.
Mr Balogun noted that the Nigeria’s threadbare education system can prove to spur innovation in how to deliver ad-hoc education, especially to those he referred to as the country’s lost generation.
He expressed his concern that building brick and mortar schools may never catch up to Nigeria’s rapidly expanding student population and proposed a new way to tackle this aged problem.
“We can tackle our education problem by applying new thinking, leveraging technology such as the mobile phone and broadband internet. According to the Nigerian Communications Commission, internet subscribers in Nigeria are about 114 million as at February 2019, largely via mobile phones.
“The mobile phone has become the preferred device of choice for payments, ride-hailing and healthcare in Nigeria; it can be used for education and learning too.
“Education via mobile phones is a leveler and will guarantee access to quality education for everyone, irrespective of financial status or social class, language or tribe. It also ensures access to low-cost teaching resources, added value compared to traditional teaching and a complementary solution for teacher training”.
Proffering adequate solutions to the dearth, Balogun said “Across levels, we can develop applications that give certificated education, fit-for-purpose and pragmatic, while complementing current education realities. Students can access online lectures, compressed for mobile phones with exercises, theory, games, peer-to-peer support, ranking competitions, tests, self-assessment, online resources and incentives for those that complete their classes.
“Asides the 10.5 million primary school age children currently out of school in Nigeria, mobile learning brings education to our underserved people and communities; people who would otherwise not have had access. It is highly scalable, low-touch and addresses the bottom of pyramid with the basic core – English, Mathematics and Social Studies/African History. An example is Nokia’s MoMaths (Mobile Mathematics) programme, which gives South Africa children from low-income families access to high-quality education. MoMaths was launched by Nokia and the country’s Department of Science and Technology, aligned to its CAPS curriculum and provided a complimentary mobile learning platform to all South African high school Maths learners in Grade 10 -12.
“To leapfrog connectivity challenges, we can explore a similar model to Rwanda, which partnered with OneWeb to launch a satellite (named Icyerekezo) which will bring internet connectivity to students in rural Nkombo Island.”, he added.
Mr Balogun expressed confidence in Nigeria’s ability to apply new thinking to solve existing problems efficiently, in the absence of legacy systems and infrastructure, and empower its teeming population and opined that, just like Africa has done with mobile payments, the next solutions and breakthroughs will come from Africa, where the multiple challenges will foster newer, more nimble innovative solutions.
Led by foremost corporate professionals, Verraki is focused on implementing technology and business solutions designed inherently for Africa and specifically fit for purpose, while also curating business ventures to unlock new sources of growth across the continent.
Verraki is also set to apply its global expertise and local insights to partner with enterprises and governments to accelerate the development and transformation of Africa by providing business solutions uniquely tailored for Africa.
Modupe Gbadeyanka