Tablet of Knowledge to return to Osun schools in grand style – Commissioner

The Osun State Commissioner of Education says the renowned Tablet of Knowledge, popularly called Opon Imo, earlier withdrawn from students of Senior Secondary Schools will soon be re-introduced in grand style.

Mr Folorunsho Bamisayemi said in a chat with journalists on Osogbo, the state capital.

He said the popular Opon Imo which won a lot of accolade across the world as a phenomenal ICT innovation in schools, was only temporarily withdrawn to be refurbished and be improved upon.

Bamisayemi said the Tablets were withdrawn to enable the state develop a comprehensive and robust Information and Communication Technology policy in the education sector

He noted that the Opon Imo had to be withdrawn because the state did not have an ICT policy on education before it was introduced into schools, hence, its ineffective use.

“We have not jettisoned Opon Imo, we have only rested it for a while pending the time we will have well structured ICT Policy on education.

ICT equipment and Opon Imo in particular will be reintroduced and be reworked by making it a digital, audio, video teaching equipment that will not require the internet to function,” he said.

The Commissioner noted that some of the ICT facilities had been laying fallow since 2010 as teachers and students lacked requisite capacities.

“There was no ICT Policy on education in Osun State, Opon Imo was just brought in, teachers did not know what to do with it, just as students did not know the extent of its usefulness. But in the new policy, beyond Opon Imo, we will have digital boards and others.

“We also discovered that some school principals in public schools locked ICT equipment in 77 schools from 2010 to 2014. Some schools have 200 laptops, 300 tablets with generating plants and ICT buildings. But because they don’t know what to do with them. They only use the generator in the principal’s office.

“Again, some schools were given 2 million gigabytes of internet acces, but it expired and was wasted because, on one hand, there was no ICT policy on education in place, and on the other hand, because the teachers did not know what to do with them. Hence the need for a robust policy that will address all these thematic areas in the ICT,” he stated.

The Commissioner maintained that the ministry was working on ICT policy that would ensure teachers were adequately trained to equip them with proper skills to manage the Tablets, and other ICT facilities and centers.

Lateefah Ibrahim