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| Opon Imo scholars |
* Opon Imo to be adopted for West African education/learning systems
The United Nations, through one of it’s Development Agencies- UNESCO has expressed support for the efforts of the Rauf Aregbesola administration in repositioning education in Osun.
Professor, Hassana Alidou- Director and Country Representative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNICEF, made this known in Osogbo, Sunday during an international media chat.
The media chat was one of the preludes to the official launch of the new learning device- Opon Imo that the Osun Government is distributing to 150,000 senior public secondary students across the state.
Professor Halidou charged African leaders to rise to the ocassion of modern technology, especially in the development of children in the continent. She said it has become imperative to introduce ICT into all sectors, especially in the education of the children- whom she said would administer their countries in the future. She added that the continent does not have a choice; especially within the global economy trends. “We cannot expect, knowing that ICT is here to stay… We are going into global economy, which is driven by technology; if at early age children do not use technology to learn, it is not when they become adult, and they are required to work competently; to be technologically competent that we are going to ask the company to teach them how to use ICT in order to become efficient”, said the UNICEF Officer-in-Charge in Nigeria.
Alidou said the UN organisation will adopt Opon Imo as one of the major tools of its West African regional harmonisation efforts in Education- “using the curriculum that is integrated in the Tablet of knowledge, we can look at how to achieve our regional harmonisation, because WAEC is a regional organisation- and many countries are going towards harmonisation. Not just harmonisation of education, but harmonisation of learning, and harmonisation of examination.
“So we will look at how it will be possible; how the use of Table of Knowledge not only in Osun but in other countries, can allow us to harmonise education in the region.”
According to the UN agent in Nigeria, UNICEF as one of the United Nations Development Agencies- UNDA, picked interest in the Opon Imo project at the instance it was officially mentioned by Governor Aregbesola; and developments around it are being observed.
She expressed optimism that going by the observations, it is clear that the Opon Imo learning devise is currently an important learning material needed today to prepare a solid future for the African continent.- “So we see that the time to train the highly qualified adult of tomorrow is today. And this (Opon Imo) is an investment for now and the future. And we believe that it is a model of innovation that we are very much following, monitoring so that we can look at the result”, she said.
Source: Osundefender
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