UBEC, NOUN to award postgraduate diploma in smart education

The Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) for the hosting of the Postgraduate Diploma in Smart Education (PGDSE) for teachers in the internship scheme.

The Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr. Hamid Bobboyi and Vice-Chancellor of NOUN, Professor Olufemi Peters, signed the document on behalf of their respective organisations, signalling the commencement of the postgraduate course aimed at improving the quality of teachers in Nigeria.

Speaking, Bobboyi said that Teacher Internship Scheme was initiated to improve the quality of teaching and learning in schools, emphasising the use of technology in providing engaging, motivating, collaborative and personalised learning experience for learners.

“As part of efforts towards achieving this, the commission included a six month Smart Education Primer course and a one-year Postgraduate Diploma in Smart Education in the 2-year Teacher Internship Scheme programme.

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“This capacity building programmes is aimed at equipping the Interns with skills for assisting teachers in the UBEC Model/Smart schools and Effective schools in the delivery of technology driven teaching and learning.

“As a world class education Intervention and regulatory agency, the Commission is preparing its teachers through the PGD in Smart Education course to produce globally competitive learners who achieve outstanding results,” he stated.

Bobboyi underscored the transformative changes in the education sector brought about by technological advancement, saying integration of technology in teaching and learning was reshaping the educational landscape with immense potential to enhance educational outcomes and promote lifelong learning.

“With this, the learners are able to effectively navigate the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world,” Bobboyi noted.

He explained that at the moment, the interns to participate are education graduates, noting that access would be opened to enable many gain knowledge of smart education and increase the rate of literacy in technology pedagogy in Nigerian schools.

He urged the State Universal Basic Education Boards and other stakeholders in the basic education sector to make great use of the provision of the graduates of the scheme.

He commended NOUN for the partnership and the Digital Resource Centre of the commission for the preliminary skills given to the interns.

The Vice-Chancellor of NOUN, Olufemi Peters, said the meeting was strategic because it involved the mandates of the two organisations —provision of quality education at different levels.

He said the Faculty of Education that houses the new course had been positioned to support different schools, teachers, teacher training institutions and other educational stakeholders that would be involved in the collaboration.

Peters expressed optimism that the initiative would engender quality education that UBEC, SUBEBs and other stakeholders dearly wanted.