The Bayelsa Government and Microsoft Corporation have partnered to train 12,000 teachers and 90,000 pupils on e-learning as part of the state’s vision for digital advancement in education.
Commissioner for Education, Gentle Emelah, stated this at a two-day virtual education transformation workshop, which commenced on Tuesday in Yenagoa.
The workshop was jointly organised by the state government and Microsoft for directors and heads of agencies in the Ministry of Education.
According to him, the initiative is necessitated by the impact of the COVID-19 crisis which disrupted global systems and caused a sharp paradigm shift toward e-learning with digital tools.
Emelah explained that the 12,000 teachers would be drawn from public and private schools to ensure that teaching manpower in both sectors were adequately captured for the benefits of pupils.
“Because of the global COVID-19 pandemic, we are equally learning a new way of reaching and teaching our children, and the way to go is e-learning. For that reason, we have partnered with Microsoft.
“They are going to train 12,000 teachers for us. And of course, we can’t get 12,000 from the public service, so we are going to involve some private school teachers also because the children there are all our children.
“They are equally going to train 90,000 students on how to use the internet for study. Based on that, we felt that as administrators of the system, we have to acquire that knowledge so that we know what our teachers are doing when we go out on inspection,” Emelah said.
Emelah further said that the workshop and training were among other preliminary activities being carried out ahead of an education summit to be organised by the state government on May 24 to midwife a 15-year education policy.
In his goodwill message, Gov. Douye Diri stressed that the workshop was very meaningful to the government as educational development was the catalyst for its vision toward the transformation of education in Bayelsa.
He said this premise informed his administration’s policy to establish at least one science and technical school in each local government area to deepen technologically-driven knowledge.
Diri, who lauded Microsoft for the support, said, “The present circumstance of the COVID-19 pandemic has foisted a new normal on us all and we if must live through and beyond this new normal, we must innovate. Innovation itself is knowledge-driven.”
Microsoft Team Lead in charge of Middle East and Africa, Ms Jaye Richard-Hill, in her remarks, said the workshop was based on the organisation’s “16 key components of a successful transformation strategy” under the four pillars of Microsoft’s Education Transformation Framework (ETF).
“This workshop will build these into a wide-ranging discussion and focus on outcomes and key success indicators in support of your current strategy and policy work,” she said.