*Expands NgREN Governing Council, Raises 2 Technical Working Groups
Towards exploiting technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance Nigeria's education system, the Federal Government of Nigeria on Tuesday took concrete steps to connect all Nigerian schools to internet connectivity.
To achieve the goal, President Bola Tinubu has given clear directives to the Federal Minister of Education and the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy.
To this end, the Honourable Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa and the Honourable Minister of Communications, Dr Bosun Tijani met with stakeholders in Abuja.
They expanded the governing council of the Nigerian Research and Education Network and raised two technical working groups for tertiary institutions and fundamental and secondary schools in Nigeria.
Speaking on the meeting, Dr Tunji Alausa said "It's a collaborative meeting between myself as the Minister of education and Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy. We talked about connectivity for Nigeria education system, from our foundation school, to our secondary school and then to the tertiary institutions.
"I'm sure, you are all aware of what we are trying to form, our Nigeria Research..., they were involved in connecting our tertiary institutions to the broadband network available in the country, with World Bank supported project about 15 years ago.
"But after the funding dried up, the project just withered. We now said how can we cascade and improve on what we had. When you are talking about connectivity, you are not only talking about the broadband, you are talking about the...., the satellite and other things."
On the President's directive, he said "And today we have a president. President Bola Tinubu, that believes so much in education as well as extensively rehabilitating every sector of our economy. The President has given directive to the Minister of Communications to expand access, Internet access to every nook and cranny in the country, to build on the.... connectivity we have in the country.
"They're working on a project called Project,,,, 90,000 kilometers of broadband. They're also talking about 3700 towers, as well as new satellite for the country, to add to the existing capacity.
"So what we've just done today is to discuss preemptively, futuristically, to plan with them, to ensure that all those broadband connections, those towers they are building are connected to our school, from our primary school to junior Secondary School to Senior Secondary School, and to our tertiary education system.
"So once we do this, into the future, we need internet connection. We have to leverage the benefit of AI, benefit of modern education, and that's what this President, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is all about."
Dr Alausa thanked the Minister of Communications for his extensive knowledge, expertise, collaboration and support the Ministry of Communications is giving the Education Ministry
Education Minister went on "We also came out with several next step on how to advance this. Today's meeting is not just a talk show, it's an action laden engagement that we all have clear steps on what we need to do, in terms of expanding the governing council of our Nigerian Research and Education Network and the connectivity for Nigeria education sector.
"We are expanding the council, but bringing the foundational schools, people in charge of foundational schools as part of the governing council. We are also setting up two technical working group, one for the tertiary institutions and the other for the foundational schools and secondary schools.
"They all have next steps of what we need to do and as the Minister of Communications said there are some things we can actually begin to actualize now, immediately."
According to him, Nigerians will begin to see changes in the next three months.
"The whole essence of this is to ensure that we deliver Internet services to every school in this country, from primary school, junior secondary school, Senior Secondary School, and to all education institutions, universities, polytechnics and college education.
"This is not just saying, this is what the President wants us to do, and we now have a clear plan on how we're going to get this accomplished. As the President always says, We need to ensure that every single child gets the highest quality of education that is comparable to anywhere in the world, and that's what we're committed to do." he stated
Besides reaching all the communities in Nigeria with connectivity, the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, said the mandate is also for all schools to be connected to the internet.