A two-day Anambra State Education Digitalization Summit 2022, is to hold in Anambra from the 24th to the 25th of February, 2022.
The summit is being organized by the state Ministry of Basic Education in collaboration with Integral Development Consult, IDK learning centre and Teenovative.
It is the fallout of an e-conference on post-COVID-19 education, aimed at fashioning out alternatives to the regular classroom teaching, which became impossible during the peak COVID era.
Speaking at a pre-event media chat on the summit, the Anambra Commissioner for Basic Education, Kate Omenugha said the event is part of the present administration’s exit strategy, targeted at consolidating its achievements in the education sector in the past eight years.
She also revealed that at the Summit, the ‘One Student One Laptop’ campaign will be launched, saying the state is banking on Public-Private partnerships to drive the initiative, leveraging on the diversity and connection of indigenes of the state.
Omenugha noted that some of the key strategies of the Obiano administration for the state education sector, was to make the teachers transformational leaders and be able to work as professionals in their chosen fields, as well as to make them globally competitive.
According to her, it was a vision of the outgoing administration, to get to a point where a classroom teacher in Anambra can be exportable to other parts of the world and one way to achieve that, is through ICT.
“We have done lots of training, over 10,000 teachers have been trained.
“They been taught teach and tech, an initiative that aims to equip them with the details of ICT, critical thinking and analytical skills.
“We had created an online class with mentor for the teachers throughout the COVID-19 emergency education intervention,” she said.
According to the Education Commissioner, what they want to do now is to lay the bed for Post-COVID education that will be ICT-driven.
She explained that the Anambra State Education Digitalization Summit 2022, which will be both virtual and physical, has a clear objective, to breach the digital divide in Anambra State.
“There is a huge digital divide between the urban/developed areas and the rural/hinterlands with multi-sectoral problems.
“Most of the rural places are the areas that spell very poor indices for Anambra’s digital education initiative.
“Through this summit, we want to advance our initial vision to ensure that the learning needs of all are met, through the equitable distribution of educational resources and ensuring that no child is left behind,” she said.
Noting that the summit is part of a thought process to revolutionize the state education sector and provide the incoming governor of the state, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, with a viable option for the transformation of the state education systems.
She called for partnerships towards advancing the state education systems, noting that opportunities abound in the state education system for the private sector.
On her part, the Chief Executive Officer of the IDK learning centre, Mrs Chinwe Nweke CEO, IDK learning Centre, who is also the Chairman of the ANSED planning committee 2022, said they are hoping at the end of the conference, they will have a blueprint that will drive digital transformation of the learning process in the state.
“It is exciting for me that we are starting the summit on the 24th of February to end on the 25th.
“Day one of the summit, we will have selected ICT companies and experienced educators, to help us lay the foundation for blended learning in Anambra, that is introducing ICT in Basic Education Pedagogue.
“We have four subthemes for the summit.
“They are Access and Affordable devices, Broadband access in all the schools, E-content and Use of learning management systems and Energy.
“Zion Energy, International Company from Germany will be coming into Anambra to lead discussions at the Summit.
“Day Two is the day we will launch the “One Student, One laptop” campaign,” she disclosed.
According to Mrs Nweke, the strategic sessions at the Summit that will brainstorm on the subthemes, are expected to yield answers to budding issues that hamper efforts at digitization of the state education systems.
Also speaking, the Chairperson of the Anambra State Basic education Board, ASUBEB, Mrs Francisca Ego Obi, maintained that the summit is very important for the state to have an education system that is productive and globally competitive, stressing that in a 21st-century digital world, Anambra teachers and students cannot afford to be left behind.
