The Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr Hamid Bobboyi, has expressed the commitment of the agency to the provision of smart education by promoting innovation and technology enhancement in delivery at the basic level in the country.

Bobboyi said the commission, through its Digital Resource Centre, is providing technical support for the smooth operations of the 11 smart schools, which commenced academic activities during the September 2023/2024 academic session nationwide.

The smart schools are located in Bauchi, Benue, Ekiti, Nasarawa, Niger, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Kwara, Osun and Oyo states.

A statement signed by UBEC's spokesman, David Apeh, said Bobboyi spoke at a two-day workshop organized by the Digital Resource Centre towards building and establishing partnerships with Edtech startups to provide essential tools for enhancing the quality and relevance of education in the 21st century.

He noted that there was a need to introduce innovative approaches to the delivery of basic education and to familiarise education stakeholders, particularly classroom teachers in smart schools, with the Edtech ecosystem.

“The interactive activity succeeded in identifying areas where UBEC can collaborate with the startups to provide fresh perspectives and map out strategies for the utilisation of technology in delivering quality basic education, especially for the Smart Schools and E-learning programmes of the UBE Commission,” he said.

According to the statement, the Digital Resource Centre of UBEC has embarked on a technical support exercise designed to enhance the capacity of smart school teachers through constructive feedback and continuous capacity development.

The technical support activity focused on observing and identifying areas of challenge in smart education delivery while providing teachers with one-on-one constructive feedback based on classroom observation.

“This approach provided direct coaching for skill refinement and professional growth while creating an avenue for knowledge and experience sharing among teachers,” Apeh said.

The workshop was attended by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), 21 Edtech startups and 11 teachers from the operational smart schools across the country.