Osun State Governor Ademola Adeleke has directed the state ministry of Education, Science, and Innovation to consider re-introducing digital learning tablets in schools across the state.

Ademola gave the directive following the deterioration of basic education performance to the bottom nationally under the immediate past administration. This, the governor said, is part of his efforts to drive education in the state through technological innovations. Aregbesola’s government pioneered e-Learning in Osun schools and introduced E-tablets and computers to aid learning and teaching in Osun. Over 300,000 students benefitted from the program, increasing the pass rate of Osun senior secondary pupils by over 193% while saving the state over N8.4 billion in annual textbook expenses.

The program however suffered a setback, as former Governor Adegboyega Oyetola’s administration withdrew the gadget from pupils. Governor Adeleke who presented instructional materials to pupils as part of activities to mark his 100 days in office, decried the poor performance of pupils and West African Examinations Council’s (WAEC’s) ranking, faulting the failure of tech innovation in schools, saying “it does not abide by best practice.” Giving solutions to the challenges faced by the education sector, Adeleke said, “A more trending solution is to apply technology in our schools. In the past, the application of tech innovations in schools failed due to failure to abide by best practices. Administrators then abandoned expert advice, hence the failure of such innovations. Our government is ready to infuse technology to aid learning, assist teachers, and to improve the learning environment.

“Part of the reason for failure in national examinations is lack of familiarity with computer systems. The majority of our pupils are not able to use computers until a few days before their examinations. Unfortunately, most examinations are now computer based. Upgrading pupils’ computer skills is, therefore, one of the major goals of my administration.”He directed the ministry of Education to clean up and reopen the nine computer centres located in selected schools across the nine federal constituencies. You will recall that during the Aregbesola administration over 10,000 youths in Osun were empowered through the OYES-Tech scheme using the centres. He added: “We must put them to good use for the betterment of our education system. I call on the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Science and Innovation to study the possibility of introducing tablets to the senior secondary school level. This will address the increasing cost of book purchase and also enhance Osun’s readiness for e-learning.”