The Federal government of Nigeria launched an e-curriculum portal in Abuja to facilitate teaching and learning for senior secondary schools in the country.
Commenting on the launch, the Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike said that the introduction of the portal was in line with the deployment of ICT in the Education Policy of the Federal Government.
The portal was conceived by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council (NERDC), and SIDMACH Technologies Nigeria Limited.
“The NERDC e-curriculum portal is a web-based, efficient and effective curriculum management solution for primary and secondary schools. This solution will provide digital access to school curricula, provision of sample teaching resources for teachers to prepare lesson notes, provision of sample learning materials for the learners,” Wike said.
According to Wike, the portal will be uploaded with teachers guide, sample lesson plans, notes, e-learning resources as well as suggested e-books and learning resources. He called on stakeholders in the curriculum implementation at various government levels, including the private educational institutions, to support the project and further strengthen the quality of the education sector.
Prof Godswill Obioma, the Executive Secretary of NERDC, said the present effort at developing an e-curriculum was based on public private partnership model and government enabling policy.
Obioma explained that the purpose was to ensure online access to the prescribed national curriculum in all subjects offered at the senior secondary education level in Nigeria.
“It will assist the policy-makers, Federal Ministry of Education, states ministries of education and local authorities in domesticating the curriculum across all schools and ensured aligned with prescribed content standards, ’’ Obioma said.
He added that the portal would advocate IT in Nigerian schools and encouraging a modern and vibrant education system in the country.
Dr Stephen Dike, Chairman, Governing Board of NEDRC, said the idea of the e-curriculum was to address the gross inadequacy of the number in serving the teeming population of teachers that use the curriculum in each school.