Education stakeholders in Kaduna State have called for adequate digital literacy for teachers in public and private schools to improve learning and teaching outcomes in the state.

The stakeholders made the call during a dialogue on digital literacy in Kaduna on Friday, April 14.

Speaking at the event, the Founder Executive Director of the Emerald-Isle Foundation (EIF), Evelyn Ode, stated that the goal was to develop strategies on how to leverage on technology to improve teaching and learning outcomes in Kaduna State.

Ode said the dialogue was aimed at looking for ways to enhance digital skills among teachers in Kaduna State and how digital skills could enhance learning among public and private school learners.

“We are hoping that the dialogue will provide an opportunity to enhance partnership and collaboration towards achieving expected outcomes of the state Development Plan on education,” she said.

On his part, the Chairman, Evidence Technical Working Group, Kaduna Basic Education Accountability Mechanism (KADBEAM), Martins Dangwa, said in spite of the state government’s commitment to improve digital literacy, not much had been achieved in the education sector.

Dangwa said the government in its education policy committed to training teachers on new techniques and best practices using modern equipment like digital learning materials.

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He added that the vision of the Kaduna State Development Plan was also to build a pathway for the transformation of the state into a digital economy for growth and development.

He, however, said the budgetary provisions for digital literacy for teachers were insignificant to driving the needed change in leveraging technology.

“In the state budget for basic education, only N460 million was allocated for teacher training on Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

“Also, most schools do not have the needed infrastructure and facilities like electricity, computers, digital library, and other digital devices for digital learning.

“This is an indication of low prioritisation of digital skill development for teachers,” Dangwa stated.

Also speaking at the event, the Deputy Director, Monitoring and Evaluation, Ministry of Education, Munkaila Usman, said the government, with support from development partners, was doing all it could to improve the education environment.

Usman stressed the need for e-learning policy in the state to guide the implementation of digital literacy programmes and projects by government and development partners in the state.

Abel Adejor, State Lead Facilitator, Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL), a governance programme, called for advocacy to politicians to support the provision of ICT facilities for learning.

Adejor also stressed the need for improving budgetary allocation to entrenched technology in education system delivery.

Also speaking, the State Partnership Facilitator, PERL, Isitifanus Akau, stated that corporate organisations should be approached to support ICT infrastructure and human resources as part of their corporate social responsibility.

The Star