The Nigerian government is committed to engage teachers in digital technology as part of President Buhari administration’s innovation agenda.

Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo stated this on Wednesday, when he received a courtesy visit to the Presidential Villa, the management of NetDragon Websoft Company, a Chinese-based digital technology company led by its Chairman, Mr Dejian Liu and the Vice Chairman, Dr. Simon Leung.

Long lasting policy
He said the Nigerian government’s technology policy was already on course.

The Acting President noted that collaborations with the private sector would be appreciated especially in scaling up teacher training and developing a policy that would last for a long period.

According to Professor Osinbajo, “some of the estimates show us that we need to educate from scratch, millions of teachers a year depending on how we look at the problem.”

 “For us, the timing is very important, we need to do a lot more, like sit with you and look at the challenges, especially how to train teachers on a huge scale. When you talk of the sustainability of the smart classroom, I think frankly, that our problem is to see how we need to train the teachers that will use all of these hardware and to what extent we can deploy digital platforms.”

Fine-tuning partnership
The Acting President said the government would constitute a working group that would fine-tune the proposed partnership with the Chinese company for the deployment of its technology in promoting digital forms of learning and teaching in Nigeria’s education system.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire said the team was in Nigeria to introduce the company’s technology especially in the education sector.

The Vice Chairman of the company, Mr Simon Leung, in a short presentation to the Acting President, said the company was prepared to invest in the country especially in improving teaching and learning in Nigeria’s education sector.

The Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, FCT Minister, Muhammad Bello and other top government officials were at the meeting.