As part of efforts to boost Teachers’ digital skills, service delivery and efficiency in the basic education sector, the Ekiti State Government has distributed no fewer than 1145 tablet devices to all public primary and junior secondary schools in the State.
The Ekiti State Governor, Mr Biodun Oyebanji while presenting the tablets to the teachers said that the devices, once connected to the BAMIS (BESDA Attendance Management Information System) application, would aid the teachers and administrators in tracking learners’ attendance through a proper digital attendance monitoring system.
The presentation which was done during the official flag-off ceremony of a 5-day workshop on Digitalization of Basic Education for Teachers, SUBEB and LGEA Officials meant that the participants would receive adequate training on the use of the devices and application.
Governor Oyebanji said that it was imperative to train the participants on the use of the application as the system enables teachers and school administrators to monitor learners’ attendance in real-time and with the use of the distributed smart tablet devices, the system collects attendance records, manages, stores and processes the data.
His Excellency harped on the importance of professionalism and continuous skill acquisition in the teaching profession, stressing that it was imperative to provide teachers with adequate working tools and for teachers to be trained and retrained on modern teaching and monitoring methods.
The Governor who was represented by the SUBEB Executive Chairman, Prof. Femi Akinwumi stated that the training on the BAMIS system would go a long way to eliminating or greatly reducing the Out Of School Children Phenomenon in the State.
Reiterating the commitment of the Oyebanji-led administration to improve the basic education sector in the State, the Governor affirmed that his administration would continue to collaborate with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Federal Ministry of Education and all other Education stakeholders through the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to improve the skills and capacity of teachers in the basic education sector in the State.
Earlier in his welcome address, the SUBEB Executive Chairman, Prof. Femi Akinwumi, who was represented by the SUBEB Permanent Secretary, Mr Afolabi Adebiyi described digitalization as the current approach to solving the existing issues relating to the old method of data gathering and storage.
Prof. Akinwumi stated that it is vital that teachers are equipped with the necessary training tools that can make them function optimally in their various teaching-learning activities, especially in the modern ICT generation and that is the reason the devices were procured by the State Government.
The SUBEB Boss urged the beneficiaries to see the devices as motivation to be more dedicated to their duties, stressing that the State government has invested in them and they are expected to reciprocate the gesture by applying all they have learned in improving basic education in the State.
He also appealed to the participants to cultivate the habit of properly maintaining the tools and equipment provided by the government to justify the huge investment and avoid waste of resources.
The SUBEB Boss affirmed that a strong database is needed for education planning and implementation which would in turn provide comprehensive information on the Out of out-of-school children in the State and urb the phenomenon.
While reiterating the commitment of the Oyebanji-led administration to teachers’ development, he urged the participants to take full advantage of the training to improve their digital skills the for overall development of basic education programmes in the State.
In a goodwill message, the UBEC Executive Secretary, Dr. Hammid Bobboyi who was represented by Mr Yakubu Achimugu, lauded Governor Oyebanji for always taking advantage of UBEC interventions to elevate the basic education status of the State.
Dr. Bobboyi mentioned that the BAMIS system generates daily attendance reports that would help the school administrators track learners’ presence with high accuracy and efficiency.
Bobboyi noted that learners and their parents would receive real-time notification via SMS or Email whenever a student is absent. “This does not only increase parents’ involvement in their child’s academic activities, but it maximizes learners’ engagement rate in class thus improving their performances”, he said.