Forget ‘good old days’ schools, leverage technology , says educator

The desire to re-create the good schools of yesteryears where all pupils, especially those attending public schools, can get quality education may never be fulfilled, says an educator, Mr. Martins Adegoke.

In an interview with The Nation, Adegoke, who has taught at secondary and tertiary levels for over two decades, said it would be difficult to get quality teachers in adequate numbers to train the large population of school children in Nigeria.

“If we all think that public primary schools will go back to the way they were in the 70s and 80s, we are joking. In Nigeria, we have about 40 million pupils from Primary 1 to SS3, according to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics.We have another 12 million out of school – which makes 52 million people of school age.  The teacher- to-student ratio in Nigeria is very appalling. The knowledge of the teacher is also another factor to look at.  We cannot get the kind of public schools we attended back then where we got quality education today,” he said.

However, Adegoke believes pupils can still get quality education leveraging technology. While the number of quality teachers in the country may be inadequate, the biological scientist and former banker said the productivity of good teachers could be enhanced through technology to reach  more learners.

Adegoke dedicates his time and resources to getting good quality teachers to put educational content in a form that is attractive to learners – animated videos.

Through his firm, Martad Educational and Skills Development Limited, Adegoke started Screen Class, a management learning system that gives learners access to resources online. The resource is loaded with curriculum-based concepts taught with animated videos.