The federal government has assured Nigerians of providing the right environment for an information and communication technology (ICT) driven society to make learning and teaching easy.

The permanent secretary of the federal education ministry David Adejo made this commitment in Abuja at the 2022 EdTech Summit and Award.

Mr Adejo said the federal government was leveraging ICT to improve the quality and efficiency of education at all levels.

According to him, technology has become the driver of competitiveness in our world today, and it has redefined productivity and changed the dynamics of production and services.

“ICT has expanded social networking beyond borders and affected virtually every sector of the world economy. We need to equip our youths with relevant IT skills and empower them for self-reliance and economic growth. We must use ICT to improve the life of our citizens and for social transformation,” said the official.

Mr Adejo added, “We are also providing greater access for the learners in basic and senior secondary. Some of our initiatives include; the development of a National ICT in Education policy; training of teachers on basic ICT skills; and the provision of an e-learning portal for students across the country.”

The AFRITEX CEO, Oyesola Oworu, said the summit was geared towards the emergence and development of the ecosystem, which he said was lagging for the future of education.

Mr Oworu explained that Nigeria had about 20 million out-of-school children, hence the need for a quick response to fix it through technology.

“The world is not waiting for Nigeria even though Nigeria is sleeping for the next one hundred years; the world is moving. They have gone, and we are only trying to catch up with them. We have to meet the world where it is right now, and we need to have this ecosystem developed so that everyone can come together,” he stressed.

Mr Oworu added, “We are also planning to launch what we call Nigeria Educational Technology Alliance because a summit once in a year like this is not sufficient for us to be able to develop the ecosystem.”

(NAN)