Efforts by the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led state government to improve the state’s education sector and revolutionize learning process through the Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (EdoBEST) programme has continued to receive applause and commendations, as Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos has urged other states in the country to embrace the digital teaching method.
Hailing Obaseki for the ingenuity of starting EdoBEST, Sanwo-Olu described the programme as a model for across-the-board basic education reform.
“I usually concede and acknowledge Governor Obaseki because I copied something from him,” Governor Sanwo-Olu said at the recently concluded Ekiti State Fountain Summit, while speaking about EdoBEST.
“You know he brought the initiative and we said, we also need to start with basic education; we know what our strengths are,” the governor added.
Lagos State officially launched EKOEXCEL in January 2020 to replicate the success of EdoBEST, in Lagos. EdoBEST and EKOEXCEL have seen to it that teachers are upskilled, technology is deployed to schools and the learning process is better managed.
With programmes like EdoBEST and EKOEXCEL, “pupils can have the same curriculum. And so, they can have the same quality in terms of input and the expected output. We’ve copied that (EdoBEST) from Edo and it is working well in Lagos and we will scale it up,” Governor Sanwo-Olu said.
On his part, Obaseki stated, “Education is the foundation in which every other thing rests particularly the use of ICT. For the future, we need to see how we now use technology to recast basic education.
“The use of technology in governance, governing the people and organising the society starts from that stage, where children are exposed to technology and have to see technology as part of their lives.”
Noting that the programme has improved literacy and numeracy skills among pupils and impacted on the teaching method, the governor added: “We see that in Edo, we are reenacting basic education and giving tablets to over 10,000 teachers and training them in the use of those devices, such that the teachers prepare their lesson note, take attendance with the tablets.
“My teachers can now say that they are digital teachers. What is important and fundamental there is that, children now relate with his or her teacher on a technology platform. Once this foundation is laid, every other follows.”
