Intel Partners USAID on Kano Teachers’ IT-Assisted Learning

To remarkably improve the standard of primary education in the country, Intel Nigeria and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) have jointly organized a first of its kind training for teachers in Kano and donated a fully equipped computer centre.
Intel Nigeria in conjunction with the Community Participation for Action in The Social Sector (Compass), a USAID-sponsored organization jointly coordinated a five-day training program for lecturers of Saadatu Rimi College of Education on the use of information technology for teaching and also donated 20 sets of computers to the department of Primary Education Studies of the college to kick off its computer centre.
Speaking on the initiative, Bunmi Ekundare, Corporate Affairs Manager, Intel West Africa, expressed the company’s commitment to equip teachers with necessary IT skills and tools to ease knowledge transfer chain and boost the overall learning process.
Ekundare said the partnership was borne out of a good understanding between the partners and a genuine desire to offer skills which can improve teaching and learning real time. The college is the first of its kind to receive this training in Nigeria.
“For Intel, this is a significant launch of the pre service training for teachers. Hitherto, Intel has been running programs for in service teaching but this is first for pre service section. This whole model forms a strong integral of the Intel Teach program, a sub unit of the Intel World Ahead scheme designed to enhance accessibility, connectivity, education and contents” he stated.
The Intel representative restated that, “Our goal in Intel is to see this training inculcated into the curriculum for the college. This ensures that the teachers while in still school would have acquired some skills usually after school. This gets them better prepared for the challenge and this will no doubt ease teaching and make learning more exciting and interactive. We have trained 50 teachers who will train the students who are teachers to be and also the other teachers. We have also trained technology champions who can handle basic troubleshooting of the computers should there be any”.
He said: “The donated computers have been upgraded and tailor-made to cater for specific needs. The five-day training is an intensive getting started program. Within the five days, a teacher who has never touched a computer before can now use the PC easily in his discipline be it for preparing lesson notes or assignments for students. For continuity, the program has been designed in a train the trainer cascading system order requesting that a trained teacher trains ten others for a minimum. This has been gaining momentum gradually even with the Federal Government through the Universal Provision  Fund (USPF), an arm of Nigerian  Communications Commission (NCC). It has just commissioned about 550 schools for such service though it’s for the in service”.
Ayo Oladini, Senior Education Advisor and a coordinator for Compass expressed strong optimism on the partnership which according to him was for improving education and development in Nigeria. He stated that the organization was reputed for providing stakeholders involvement in education more so grassroots adding that  it is a public private partnership that can impact lives.
“The FG has reiterated quality assurance but how can it ever come true without training and retraining for teachers who transfer knowledge. There are challenges for teachers to teach the usually large number of students in the classrooms which looks unrealistic but with the aid of IT tools and skills it becomes easy. That is a noble cause that we are dedicated to”, he remarked.
He noted that: “the partnership was borne of the MoU that exists between the two organisations as concerned parties who are ready to make meaningful contributions.  It is not only about donation of computer,  it is also about the skills. There is no way to improve quality of education without equipping teachers. This donation is the first here but would be scaled up. The participants can teach better, more interactively and easily. We are committed to in service and pre service training and infrastructural grants and instructional materials”.
Participants at the training also commented on their experience. Salihu Gigiyun, Head, Department of Primary Education Studies said the training was very educating and would be passed down to the remaining over 200 lecturers of the college. He added that “it is much easier to teach exclusively with the PC and it makes teaching highly interactive. We are delighted to be the first college of education in the country to benefit from this. It makes teaching simple, easy, scientific and offer students opportunities to go back to class lectures on their own”.
Mohd Umar, a lecturer and participant said he has worked for 13 years and lectured for 3 years but has never touched a computer. He expressed joy at the opportunity of using the computer adding that it makes him very relevant. He said nowadays everything is going online and if you are computer illiterate you will miss out.
Hakama sidi Alli, another lecturer and participant commended the organizing partners. “For me, this is exceptionally good. It makes you lure the students into learning without them realizing it. It helps especially the shy students by offering a two way flow, faster and easier learning, graphical and pictorial presentations. This is a good PC assisted learning I enjoy having lectured for 5 years´.