TeachersFirst - an Edutech Presentation at TEDx Lagos by Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu
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Putting the teachers first is critical to transforming education especially in the Digital Age. The world-over, countries like Nigeria struggling with broken public education systems and a huge deficit in education infrastructure - human and physical. Generations are slipping, falling through the yawning chasms in our countries and we must "act with the urgency of now" to save our Tomorrow. This action must be massive and decisive in scale. I argue that at a minimum this should focus on a country-scale deployment of education technology to close the this gap but must also make a similar massive effort in retooling and re-orienting the teachers for blended learning, classroom and school management in reconfigured, minimalized, entry-level technology enabled learning environments.
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TeachersFirst - an Edutech Presentation at TEDx Lagos by Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu
- 1. Going Back to Yesterday to Find our Tomorrow A presentation by Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu @ TEDxLagos 2013 Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos
- 2. I BELIEVE “When I think about our people I do not see the negativity that is common to the popular discourse. Instead, I have learnt to embrace with vigour the rich diversity of our people in every corner and corridor of the land, the good and the bad, realizing that the latter manifests and proliferates only when the former lie in retreat or in passivity.”
- 3. I BELIEVE • First Principles – To be the best, we must not only use the best but we must celebrate the best – The best do not just become, they evolve out a specific and consistent process of nurture – The best are only the function of each generation, to transcend is really to transmute – There is no choice in “THE” best, there is choice in “A” best.
- 4. I BELIEVE • At any given historical moment, the most valuable human capital the world has to offer - whether in form of intelligence, physical strength, skill, knowledge, creativity, networks, commercial innovation or technological invention – is never to be found in any one locale or within any one ethnic or religious group. • To pull away from its rivals on a global scale, a society must pull into itself and motivate the world’s best and brightest, regardless of ethnicity, religion, or background – Amy Chua, Day of Empire
- 5. • 9ja...Unique Circumstances • The Curse (?) of Oil ($29 billion in oil revenues and projected annual growth of 3.5% (economy grew by 6.5% in 2012 with 3 year average growth rate 7.6%); is forecast to maintain a +5% growth rate in the medium term – LargestPopulation (projected to 7th largest in world by 2050; a gateway to 210 million people of West Africa: Nigeria’s economy is 75% of all of W. Africa) –Limited Infrastructure; AllUrban – Median Age 18.7 Years – GDP (PPP) $188.5 Billion (2006 est.) – GDP (Per Capita) $1400 (2006 est.) –Young, driven people looking for a break (60% of Nigerians under 30yrs, unemployment at 12%; 1.5m JAMB candidates yearly) WHERE WE ARE
- 6. WHERE WE ARE • In the Year 2050, when Nigeria becomes the 7th most populous nation on earth – I probably won’t be here • So let me share my thoughts now in case someone fiddles with the clock: – I BELIEVE that wherever by acts of omission and commission we end our dreams, we will also find the carcass of our nation. – I BELIEVE that it is innovation or lack of extends or denies us our possibilities - the plow, combustion engine, phone, PC, genetic engineering and utility/cloud computing or example. – I BELIEVE that our prime Imperative is neither food, shelter or security but rather to build our innovation capability starting with education – I BELIEVE our country, Nigeria, will make or break the African dream.
- 8. - a presentation by Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu • “When financial systems fail, the consequences are highly visible and governments act....When education systems fail the consequences are less visible, but no less real. Unequal opportunities for education fuel poverty, hunger, and child mortality, and reduce prospects for economic growth. That is why governments must act with a greater sense of urgency.” ____________________Source: Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General UNESCO
- 9. - a presentation by Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu The Federal Ministry of Education Indicates that 14% of Nigerians would go on to SS3 3% of Nigerians would finish UNIVERSITY 40% of Nigerians would stop at JSS3 SOURCE: FEDERAL MINISTRY OF EDUCATION NIGERIA WHERE WE ARE
- 10. - a presentation by Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu The Federal Ministry of Education Indicates that 14% of Nigerians would go on to SS3 3% of Nigerians would finish UNIVERSITY 40% of Nigerians would stop at JSS3 SOURCE: FEDERAL MINISTRY OF EDUCATION NIGERIA WHERE WE ARE
- 11. - a presentation by Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu Only 27% of PRIMARY SCHOOL TEACHERS are QUALIFIED to TEACH SOURCE: FEDERAL MINISTRY OF EDUCATION NIGERIA 27% Early Child Care Development Education exists in only 39% of primary schools; approximately 2.02m students out of 22m million expected are enrolled. In Basic Education, only 1 out of 3 school-age children are in school, an estimated 10.1 million children below 14 years are roaming the streets of Nigeria. WHERE WE ARE
- 12. - a presentation by Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu SOURCE: FEDERAL MINISTRY OF EDUCATION NIGERIA JAMB: 1.5m applicants annually, but admission rates over past 30 years has averaged 10% Enrolling approximately 1.32m students out of 168 million people in Nigeria. WAEC/NECO: average 21% of 1.25m students taking exams annually pass with 5 credits (including English and Mathematics) in past 20 years WHERE WE ARE
- 13. - a presentation by Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu The march of Providence is so slow, and our desires so impatient; the work of progress so immense, and our means of aiding it so feeble; the life of humanity so long, and that of the individual so brief; that we often only see the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us to hope. - Robert E. Lee
- 14. • Locally, we are grappling with The Divide as access to the Cloud becomes the new measure of socio- economic possibilities and the gateway to actualisation… WHERE WE ARE
- 15. • Investments in submarine and terrestrial cables has run into $billions already… WHERE WE ARE
- 16. • It is inevitable a more inclusive Cloud if matched with formalisation of the incipient energies of the informal players, opening huge upside possibilities for a renascent Nigerian economy…it is changing NOW. WHERE WE ARE
- 17. The Attain! ™Framework approaches the challenge as that of building a sustainable ecosystem that accommodates stakeholders WHAT WE MUST DO
- 18. • Education is a process that aggregates and aligns interests through to a common goal Needs STAKEHOLDERS Investments TEACHERS/PARENTS/GOVT Operations MDAs Learning Outcomes INSTITUTIONS WHAT WE MUST DO
- 19. - a presentation by Chinenye Mba-Uzoukwu CAPABILITY/CULTURE - integrating technology into education means more than setting up computer labs or becoming IT literate; any sustainable initiative musts start as a journey on which learning is a path, not a destination. •An ecosystem approach accommodates the need to develop capability for all members; and that culture comes through when it is embedded not parachuted TECHNOLOGY - should not be equated with procuring computers , e- learning content or the Internet; none of these deliver educational outcomes. •ICT has great potential for facilitating the fulfillment of educational objectives and for enhancing solutions of educational problems POLICY – the Education sector is resistant to radical change- and perhaps it should be. Disruptive initiatives such as ICT depend on the nature/quality of policies, strategies & implementation. •Layering technology and tools on top of bad policy will not produce change. Transactional approaches lead to failure due to lack of planning sustainability and commitment. •The road from potential to effective application is long and complicated. Those who desire change must be ready for a marathon. WHAT WE MUST DO
- 20. WHAT WE MUST DO
- 21. Cross River state is one of the 36 states in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is located in the Niger Delta are of the country, but currently has ZERO oil revenues. WHAT WE HAVE DONE
- 22. Secondary Technical Non-Formal Tertiary Institutions Students 112,250 Students 11,250 Students 19,548 5,996 Teachers 834 Teachers 1,120 Teachers Pre-Primary/Primary Pupils 273,139 13,980 Teachers Schools 1018 Schools 233 Schools 18 Schools 287 Schools 4 WHAT WE HAVE DONE
- 23. Inadequate number of Teachers in critical areas of science, technology and mathematics. . Poor attitude towards teaching and learning Inadequate infrastructural decay occasioned by many years of neglect by successive administrations in the state. Poor quality of Teachers Low enrolment in sciences, mathematics and technology Examination Malpractices. Policy sommersaults The Issues WHAT WE HAVE DONE
- 24. WHAT WE HAVE DONE – Physical Infrastructure • The establishment of 3 Reference Schools in senatorial districts - in progress. • The establishment of 60 School Hubs as Cluster Training Centres for the continuous enrolment of teachers – ICT Infrastructure • The establishment of Computer Labs in the designated schools currently nearing completion under the 2010 Education Sector Action Plan • The initiation of a opt-in Teacher PC/Laptop acquisition programme which will be bundled with DLC and other training • The establishment of the Learning Network, a technology platform which will enable the building a communities of practice amongst teachers in the programme, as well as introduce an M&E mechanism for capturing metrics, learning points and continuous alignment to expected outcomes – Human Capital • Putting teachers in the school system on the path to Digital Literacy to grow skills and encouraging personal ownership of laptops by all teachers, inclusive of training by leveraging the Microsoft IT Academy programme • Training will be conducted specially for Teachers will train other teachers – train-the-trainer model • The establishment of a Digital Literacy Curriculum programme in the College of Education to ensure sustainability • The development of an operational framework for the delivery of DLC and other professional development courses Summary of Action Plan in Cross River State
- 25. Total Distribution: 9606 Teachers WHAT WE HAVE DONE • Phase One recorded 50% subscription of teachers across all tiers to Opt-In programme for laptop acquisition • Laptops pre-loaded with: – Microsoft Windows, – Microsoft Office, – Microsoft Digital Literacy Curriculum – Khan Academy STEM tutorials – BrainFriend Exam Preparation Solution • Voucher provided for 40 hours of training for each teachers
- 26. Teachers Training WHAT WE HAVE DONE 10 training centers were selected for the Phase One training program and 2046 beneficiaries took part in the training exercise in Calabar zone. Phase Two to commence in March 2014
- 27. 2046 Teachers 27% 549 Teachers 73% 1497Teachers Scored above 50% Scored below 50% Pre-Training Assessments WHAT WE HAVE DONE
- 28. 2046 Teachers 60% 1227 Teachers 40% 819 Teachers Scored above 50% Scored below 50% Post-Training Assessments WHAT WE HAVE DONE
- 29. Progress Expansion of infrastructure in schools which has enhanced access by all to qualitative education. Improved performance of students in external examinations from 05.7% in 2007 to over 40% as at 2010 Eradication of mass promotion. Inclusion of reading culture through prep classes in our students and zero tolerance for all forms of indiscipline from teachers and students. Systematic manpower development regime which has enhanced teachers’ service delivery WHAT WE HAVE DONE
- 30. PUTTING THE TEACHER FIRST The End of My Journey Back to School
- 31. First, be sure you are on the RIGHT road Second, be sure you’ve a FULL tank or stations on the way Third, be sure the people themselves are NOT the rocks that must be moved. WHAT HAVE WE LEARNT
- 32. WHAT HAVE WE LEARNT • Capability and Culture change need to happen – rapidly and in sufficient numbers to make change irreversible and perpetual • success will hinge on the leadership the principals would demonstrate to teachers and students • teachers to be trained, so they can also use the technology available to easily teach their students. • Teachers need to accept change and bring it about through action: e.g. using the web as a research tool on subject matters and develop curriculums with this learning applications
- 33. WHAT HAVE WE LEARNT "We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love."
- 34. WHAT HAVE WE LEARNT “ We smile when we look at you because we see in you the fulfilment of our work and know indeed, that it was worth it ”.
- 35. THANK YOU Teacher First – my little idea I hope you find worth listening to.
Editor's Notes
- I believe our people are gifted with an indomitable will to win, an irrepressible call to become, an irrevocable capacity to confront adversity with an intention to overcome, and most important, an unquenchable thirst to attain height after height, after height.
- In reflecting on Nigeria, I have come to realise that when stories are told about our exploits, it is usually a story of overcoming, of facing the odds and reaching for the strength that lies within.
- This land, our land, is green and its promise is inextricably tied to the fortunes of its over 109m citizens below the age of 30. If we must be all that we can be, realise our fullest potential, we must answer to the needs of these seeds. Our Tomorrow is nothing without them and our Today must be about how we create a fertile environment for their emergence even as we secure the heritage of our elders whose sacrifices cut the path through the wilderness to open up the verdant fields ahead.
- Little else matters, and our journey must begin at the beginning, with a radical, urgent and comprehensive transformation of the education space.
- Education is in crisis with statistical evidence corroborating a 3-decade old slide into a state of haplessness. Today, those with the courage to do so will quietly admit that they have little hope of seeing a turnaround in their lifetime. By some estimates, in the year 2050, Nigeria will have a population of 350m, the 7th largest in the world of which 65% will be below the age of 30. Today, the data from the Federal Ministry of Education indicates that less than 3% of the school-age population in ECCDE will attain a university degree or equivalent; 40% will attain JSS3, while 14% of the latter will go on to SSS3. We know also that as a national average only 27% of teachers in primary education are truly qualified to teach. From JAMB, we know that in 30 years since its introduction, the ratio of admissions to applicants has not exceeded 12% resulting in a total university enrolment of fewer than 900,000 in a country of 150m. From WAEC, we know that the pass mark of 5 credits including English and Mathematics has peaked at 28% of the 1.25m on the average that take the annual examinations. What is not so well known is that this has been so for fifteen years, and that the major obstacle to learning has now been openly acknowledged to be illiteracy in English language and basic numeracy. Yet, this is not about statistics; it is about vulnerable people, most of them children, who will grow inexorably into adults with increasingly narrowing chances of becoming functional and transformational agents in a country that by size and economic potential pivots the future of Africa. In a bid to bypass the problem, we pay on the average $6500 and $18000 per session to educate our children in private primary and secondary schools respectively, while 98% of the school-age population have to make do with a broken public education system. Yet by sheer numbers alone this latter will populate and run the institutional structures in public and private sectors that will determine Nigeria’s economic, social and political future. We must act, and swiftly too, if the bomb of a poorly educated and dysfunctional yet youthful society is to be defused. And we must act in big, bold and disruptive ways because incremental approaches while useful often militate against the development of the momentum required to achieve a fundamental disruption in what is NOT working. The Next Steps If you are reading this, you are probably a part of the estimated hundreds of organisations and agencies engaged in different aspects of the Education Sector, in addition to the huge bureaucracy of the 3 tiers of government. So why is it NOT working out? We believe a possible clue lies in the absence of a cohering mechanism such as policy that ensures all initiatives are able to retain their core value propositions in the larger context of a defined framework. We believe that this framework must aggressively pursue blended learning as a concept to leverage the potentials of ICT in education to create 21st century learning. We believe that measurable and sustainable outcomes must drive every component of every program.
- The data from the Federal Ministry of Education indicates that less than 3% of the school-age population in ECCDE will attain a university degree or equivalent; 40% will attain JSS3, while 14% of the latter will go on to SSS3. We know also that as a national average only 27% of teachers in primary education are truly qualified to teach. From JAMB, we know that in 30 years since its introduction, the ratio of admissions to applicants has not exceeded 12% resulting in a total university enrolment of fewer than 700,000 in a country of 150m. From WAEC, we know that the pass mark of 5 credits including English and Mathematics has peaked at 28% of the 1.25m on the average that take the annual examinations. What is not so well known is that this has been so for fifteen years, and that the major obstacle to learning has now been openly acknowledged to be illiteracy in English language and basic numeracy.
- The data from the Federal Ministry of Education indicates that less than 3% of the school-age population in ECCDE will attain a university degree or equivalent; 40% will attain JSS3, while 14% of the latter will go on to SSS3. We know also that as a national average only 27% of teachers in primary education are truly qualified to teach. From JAMB, we know that in 30 years since its introduction, the ratio of admissions to applicants has not exceeded 12% resulting in a total university enrolment of fewer than 700,000 in a country of 150m. From WAEC, we know that the pass mark of 5 credits including English and Mathematics has peaked at 28% of the 1.25m on the average that take the annual examinations. What is not so well known is that this has been so for fifteen years, and that the major obstacle to learning has now been openly acknowledged to be illiteracy in English language and basic numeracy.
- The data from the Federal Ministry of Education indicates that less than 3% of the school-age population in ECCDE will attain a university degree or equivalent; 40% will attain JSS3, while 14% of the latter will go on to SSS3. We know also that as a national average only 27% of teachers in primary education are truly qualified to teach. From JAMB, we know that in 30 years since its introduction, the ratio of admissions to applicants has not exceeded 12% resulting in a total university enrolment of fewer than 700,000 in a country of 150m. From WAEC, we know that the pass mark of 5 credits including English and Mathematics has peaked at 28% of the 1.25m on the average that take the annual examinations. What is not so well known is that this has been so for fifteen years, and that the major obstacle to learning has now been openly acknowledged to be illiteracy in English language and basic numeracy.
- Within 3 years, we project that over 60% of Nigeria’s population of 168m will be either occasionally-, or always-connected to local and global clouds.
- Drawing especially from the widespread failure of similar programmes in Nigeria and across the globe, we developed Attain!™ , an e-learning framework which recognises the need for an educational ecosystem (school, district or other constituency) to have a coherent, fully integrated, yet flexible end-to-end technology platform that is easy to deploy and maintain. Attain!™ asserts that the overall outcomes in the education sector must be driven by a holistic approach to the ecosystem. By ecosystem, it is understood that all stakeholders are part of a community but retain specific interests in how the overall community evolves. Attain!™ is built on conceptual premises that anchor current best practice in Education across the world
- Attain!™ puts the student at the centre of a 21st century learning paradigm yet emphasizes the role of the teacher in driving learning outcomes. As a consequence, training and professional development are integrated with the framework to gain buy-in and sustainability.
- Four years on from its adoption by the visionary leadership of Cross River State, with over 10,000 teachers at all tiers of the education system owning and trained to certification level in the use of laptops pre-loaded with educational tools and titles in over 200 schools across all Local Governments, the Attain! Programme is an integral part of a completely revamped Education Strategy that will help the State attain and sustain the needed competencies that will empower children to be producers of knowledge, and not simply consumers of content delivered by their teachers.
- Four years on from its adoption by the leadership of Cross River State, with over 10,000 teachers at all tiers of the education system owning and trained to certification level in the use of laptops pre-loaded with educational tools and titles in over 200 schools across all Local Governments, the Attain! Programme is an integral part of a completely revamped Education Strategy that will help the State attain and sustain the needed competencies that will empower children to be producers of knowledge, and not simply consumers of content delivered by their teachers.
- My personal journey from Veterinary Medicine, through Political Science (brief stopover in MBA Finance), Marketing Communications and finally, Information Technology (software) has brought me full circle to the understanding that the purpose of education is to enable Learning; that learning is a path, not a destination; and that we must harness the national aspirations to the potentials of technology for powering the pragmatic development of a world-class, innovation –oriented and entrepreneurial work force. Using technology we must build the new “factories” that produce the human capital we need to secure our Future.
- We believe that we have lit a candle, 10, 000 actually and with an additional 49 schools in 12 states entering into the programme, and an expected rollout to another 10,000 teachers in two states by January 2014, we believe the momentum for transformation is building.
- It was at a Pan-African Conference on Technology in Education in 2008 in Accra, Ghana that I re-learnt the humility of my youth and these words of Mother Teresa came to life for me…. I had been invited to close –out the Conference which my then company Microsoft was largely sponsoring. In my remarks, I had confessed to the audience that I had never understood why whenever I met an old teacher of mine, he/she would smile warmly despite the often worn-out, obviously “poor” look about them. The Conference Coordinator promised an answered if I stayed till the end. I am glad I did and here are her words:
- I cried openly as my mind went back in time….If you are in this audience, in the hall, a your homes or offices across this land, if you can recall a teacher in your life who looked at you and put you first by striving to bring out the best in you, please stand up as I am and show honour to whom honour is long overdue. Then join me in pledging a new beginning for our children, our nation and our continent by simply saying, “Teacher First”.