Nigerian Government has established state-of-the-art e-leaning centers in public schools across the country to further enhance modern science, technical and engineering education.
Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management And Social Development Sadiya Umar Farouk disclosed this at the flag-off and handing over ceremony of the Program in the North West region tagged “Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics STEM,” held at Government Secondary School, Rano, Kano state.
The STEM project is a component of the National Investment and Social Program N-SIP under the N-Power programme of the Ministry aimed at empowering youths across the country.
She said the project is aimed at ensuring that students in Public Schools have access to digital and updated learning materials.
“Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics STEM is a project strategically conceived to provide technical platform that would aid modern teaching and learning on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to students in some carefully selected Federal and State-owned Science/Technical Secondary Schools Nationwide.
“Technically, the project aims at providing e-Learning facilities through the establishment of a state-of-the-art Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure and modern teaching content, to serve as a one-stop-shop environment for students in public Secondary Schools to have access to digital and updated learning materials in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, while also developing their ICT skills including the use of the Internet for various purposes,” the Minister said.
Components of STEM
She said the STEM project has two components which include the set-up of the centres in the carefully selected government owned secondary schools and the training of the teachers in the schools so selected.
“While STEM centers are established to give students of secondary schools an opportunity to have practical experience in digital learning platforms, the training component focuses on building capacity of teachers in secondary schools to significantly enhance learning of STEM which is the foundation of digital economy. The programme is designed to equip and transform STEM teachers to deliver digital literacy through training, mentoring and provision of devices to aid teaching,” the Minister added.
According to her, each STEM center is equipped with modern digital equipment and a total of 218 of such schools all over the 36 States and FCT are equipped with these digital gadgets.
“Each center is equipped with 25 all-inone Desktop PC, 24-inch Screen Intel 2.8 GHz quad-core, 25 Desktop tables and Chairs, 1 Projector of 5000 lumens,1 magnetic white board for learning,1 Wi-Fi Routers multi-SIM18 Elegoo Robotics set6,” the Minister said.
She commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his administration’s determined focus and in the spirit of inclusion towards the development of young people in digital economy which the STEM project is targeted at, urging them to make best use of the equipment that would aid modern teaching and learning on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to students in the digital world of today.
The Minister was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Bashir Alkali.
Kano State Governor Dr. Umar Ganduje, who commissioned the center said the humanitarian Ministry has consistently impacted on lives of Kano people, especially the vulnerable during the Covid-19 pandemic and still doing more through the special STEM program for youth education in Secondary Schools.
Nneka Ukachukwu
