Partner to leverage technology, Google boss tells schools

By Kofoworola Belo-Osagie

With the COVID-19 pandemic exposing how far formal education had lagged behind technological development, Country Director for Google, Mrs. Juliet Ehimuan has advised educational institutions to embrace collaboration to get  speed.

Delivering the keynote at the opening of the 30-day virtual conference of the Total School Support Education Tech (TOSSEtech), which had as theme: “Education and Technology: The future is here”, Mrs. Ehimuan said the pandemic had forced the formal education system to leverage technology.

She said: “COVID pandemic has underscored the need for digital technology. While technology has transformed virtually every sector, formal education is an area that has been slower to change. Now that we find ourselves in a situation where exiting delivery models are being challenged, we are now having to accelerate the role of technology in education as we experience it today and I think this is an incredible opportunity to think expansively and to determine a full range of transformative things technology can do in education and how we can make that work for our environment.”

Advising schools to collaborate to leverage the gains of technology, Mrs. Ehimuan said collaborations could birth cost-effective and world-class learning hubs that could generate profit.

“Once a learning hub is created it can be accessed by anyone as long as it goes with the approved curriculum. It can be leveraged by anyone anywhere in any school. So there is an opportunity to come together to minimise the cost and look at building a world-class learning hub that can then be monetised not just for our local traffic but also for international traffic; and that is an incredible opportunity within that space,” she said.

The keynote was followed by a panel discussion that featured the CEO of The Education Partnership (TEP) Centre, Dr. Modupe Adefeso; EDVES CEO, Mr. Dimeji Falana; high school graduate and African Leadership Academy student, Ayomide Olatunji; and Mr. Femi Taiwo of LEAP Africa.

The panelists noted what Nigeria missed about the relevance of technology in education and proffered solutions.

Mrs. Yinka Ogunde, chief executive officer of Edumark Consult, organisers of the virtual conference, said the programme, which would last for 30 days, would point schools in the right direction in integrating technology in education.

She said: “I remember when we had the first edition of TOSSEtech at the Sheraton Hotel, we were talking about technology; about the possibilities of remote learning; of not seeing your teachers when you are learning and everyone thought how can that be possible that we will not see our teachers for months?  Now we are faced with our reality.  We call it the new normal.  We don’t know when the old order will come back.  The reality is that it is not going to come back again. And that means that we must make the best; we must continue to live our lives. A lot of educational institutions are grappling with so many issues at this time. And we believe that by bringing to them this EDTECH dialogue for 30 days a lot of things will happen.”