From Bashir Rabe Mani, Sokoto
Determined to boost digitals among students and teachers across Sokoto State, the ‘Adolescents Girls Initiative for Learning and Empowerment’ (AGILE) project plans to purchase no fewer than 2,500 computers for 100 Secondary Schools in the state.
Our Correspondent in Sokoto reports that this was disclosed on Monday by the Sokoto State AGILE Project Coordinator, Dr Mansur Isa Buhari, at the opening of a five-day Digital Literacy Skills Step-down Training for 300 Secondary School Teachers drawn from the 23 Local Government Areas of the state.
AGILE is a World Bank-supported programme run by the Federal Ministry of Education in partnership with state governments.
The project targets girls aged 10 to 20 and aims to remove barriers that keep them out of secondary school.
The programme focuses on building and renovating schools to make them safer and more girl-friendly, providing scholarships and learning materials, and delivering life skills and digital literacy training.
It also works with teachers and school managers to improve teaching quality and retention.
AGILE is currently active in several states across Northern and central Nigeria, including Sokoto.
Its goal is to increase enrolment, retention, and completion of Secondary education for adolescent girls, while addressing issues like costs, early marriage, and poor school infrastructure.
Expatiating further on the pioneer initiative, Dr. Mansur Isa Buhari stated that the project will also provide a one-year free Internet connectivity for all the benefitting schools.
According to the don, apart from making Sokoto State to be at par with the world in terms of the digital revolution, the invaluable gesture is to expose the students and teachers to trainings in vast digital areas like the ethical use of social media, Artificial Intelligence as well as a myriad of extant digital learning platforms.
Dr Mansur Isa Buhari explained that the appropriate training modules had been developed while the requisite resource persons had also been fully engaged.
He explained, “This is with the view to bridging the existing gaps in technology and catch the students young right from Senior Secondary School Class one.
As part of the trainingz which will be cascaded, the participants will be trained on how to sustain the initiative as well as augment government’s funding for it.”
According to him, AGILE Is wholly owned by the Sokoto State Government under the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education.
While decrying the non existent of such training opportunities hitherto, Dr Mansur Isa Buhari commended Gov. Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto for being digitally- friendly.
Declaring open the training, the State Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Prof. Ahmad Ladan Ala, commended Gov. Ahmed Aliyu Sokoto for according top-most priority to the education sector.
Represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr Sanusi Aliyu Binji, the Commissioner also applauded Sen. Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko, a former Governor of the state, for establishing the “Total ICT Centre’’ at the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto.
He further thanked AGULE for performing excellently in the discharge of its activities, including the provision of assorted schools’ infrastructure and water, among other critical areas of dire need in the education sector in Sokoto State.
The don also explained that digital skills are now necessary in the modern world, saying that the training will make teaching and learning easier and faster in the state.
In a goodwill message, the Executive Chairman of the Teachers’ Service Board in the state, Prof. Mustapha Mamman Na-Makkah, said that the state government is doing a lot to salvage the education sector in various ways.
In another goodwill message, the Chairman of the State Wing of the Nigerian Union Teachers, Alhaji Murtala Mohammed Sokoto, also underscored the dire for more training and training in digital skills for teachers and students in the state.
