The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has announced plans for a comprehensive technology deployment to transform basic education delivery across Nigeria.
UBEC’s Executive Secretary, Aisha Garba, revealed this on Monday in Abuja during a media briefing ahead of the 2025 International Conference on Smart Education and Digital Literacy (ICSE 2025), jointly organised by the Commission and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).
The three-day conference, scheduled for May 6–9 in Abuja, has its theme ‘Empowering African Smart Education Through Emerging Technologies.’
According to Garba, the event aims to reposition Nigeria to align with other African nations in integrating technology into education.
“For example, Rwanda has used technology in the basic education system for many years. They have reached the level of using AI in their classrooms. We have already started by creating smart schools for Nigeria, which many of you know.
“We have about 36 plus one in each of all the states we have in the country. These smart schools are very high technology advanced with content studio teachers already skilled in technology, teaching and learning in the classroom,” she said.
Garba emphasised the need to equip basic schools with the infrastructure for an innovative education system.
“The data shows that less than 50% of public primary schools in Nigeria have digital technology in their schools.
“So for that, in UBEC, it is essential what we are doing, which is trying to shift from the hardware-invested infrastructure to make our schools in basic education, to make it smart technology-enabled, to deploy technology in providing access to basic education across all parts of Nigeria. Whether a child is in a rural, semi-urban or urban area, a technology appropriate to be applied to that context will enable the child to read and write. In addition to what the child can get, the teacher is a key activity for us,” Garba added.
KOICA Country Director Kim Eunsub emphasised South Korea’s support for Nigeria’s smart education journey through the KOICA Smart School Initiative in collaboration with UBEC.
He noted that the initiative has already led to the construction of modern smart schools, training for teachers and administrators, and distribution of learning materials.
While describing the upcoming conference as a platform to deepen collaboration and build on the initiative’s progress, Kim revealed plans for a second phase of the project to begin in 2026.
Earlier, Deputy Executive Secretary (Technical) of UBEC, Rasaq Akinyemi Olajuwon, explained that the conference seeks to expand equitable access to quality basic education through inclusive, technology-driven initiatives, improve teaching and learning by promoting digital pedagogy and foster innovative curriculum design and 21st-century skills development, among others.
Leave feedback about this