Nigeria identifies priority areas for Open Educational Resources
The Nigeria national workshop on ‘ICT Competency Framework for Teacher (ICT CFT) Harnessing OER’ identified priority areas for the development of OER-based teacher training materials using ICT in the classroom, responding to Covid-19 challenges to access to education.
The debates at this online meeting underscored the potential of the contextualization of the ICT Competency Framework to respond to the urgent need to ensure that teachers had the necessary skills to use technology in the classroom. The value of OER-based materials which can be used, re-used and adapted to meet both the needs of target learners and the educational objectives of the courses or subjects for which they are being provided was underscored.
The crux of the matter is, stated Prof. Olugbemiro Jegede, Professor Emeritus, Former Vice-Chancellor, NOUN and currently Visiting Professor at NUC, that if embedded at the core of educational systems, the use of OER offers an innovative and cost-effective means to achieve the SDG 4 targets for ensuring quality education through the key pillars of access, equity and inclusion.
The meeting concluded that the six aspects of teacher training, as outlined in the ICT CFT, are aligned to Nigerian policy objectives in this area. It also highlighted that OER-based training materials, building on the resources of the ICT CFT OER Network of UNESCO, provide an effective roadmap for ensuring Nigerian teachers have the necessary ICT skills to meet the Covid-19 challenges to educational delivery.
Dr Pius Ekireghwo Director, Information & Communication Technology, National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), highlighted that that the use of technologies is now a catalyst for socio-economic development in all aspects of society, and in the education sector, it is key for ensuring the continuation of learning.
The meeting, organized by the Nigeria National Universities Commission (NUC) in cooperation with the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) and UNESCO, brought together more than 50 educational experts from nearly 30 universities in Nigeria as well the Federal Ministry of Education (FME), the National Teachers’ Institute, the National Commission for College of Education (NCCE), and the UNESCO National Commission for Nigeria, UNESCO experts from Headquarters and Offices in Abuja and Dakar, as well as regional experts in ICT in Education.