By Njide Ezeonyejiaku
In line with the vision and mission of the Soludo led administration to digitalize the education sector in Anambra State, the State Universal Basic Education has commenced a two-day training for Quality Assurance Officers of ASUBEB.
The event was held at the Utility hall, ASUBEB Headquarters Awka, for both staff in the headquarters and in the 21 Local Government Education Authorities.
According to the Executive Chairman of ASUBEB, Dr. Vera Nkiru Nwadinobi, the workshop was designed in partnership with the Universal Basic Education, UBEC and the National Space Research and Development Agency, NASRDA to enhance service delivery through electronic quality assurance evaluation.
Dr. Nwadinobi explained that the training is one of the components of the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU the State signed with UBEC and NASRDA for capacity building of ASUBEB staff in the development of relevant skills in the application of space technology and Geographic Information Service, GIS for project quality assurance and geospatial intelligence.
In her remark while declaring the workshop open, the ASUBEB boss, Dr. Nwadinobi emphasized the premium which Mr. Governor, Prof. Charles Chukwuma Soludo, has placed on digitalization of the education sector adding that digital skills for educators and educational administrators are key to laying the foundation for a livable and prosperous homeland for Ndi Anambra.
She noted that without effective monitoring and evaluation, quality assurance in education will be a mirage.
“The Board has already keyed into the digitalization policy of the state government, which informed its recent conduct of Computer Based Test for the senior staff promotion examination in ASUBEB”, she said.
Dr. Nwadinobi added that the training became possible with the payment of the counterpart funds for UBEC 2019, 2020, and 2021 by Governor Soludo.
On his part, the Director General and CEO, NASRDA, Dr. Matthew Adepoju, represented by Mr Elvis Nsofor observed that electronic quality assurance (e-Quality Assurance) is a fast, verifiable, and accurate tool that simplifies data collection, which he said is readily available on digital devices.
According to the NASRDA boss, the new system allows automatic processing of information and minimises possibilities of human errors, pointing out that it makes available the instruments, data collected, processing and generation of summary reports automatically from anywhere in the world.
He assured of NASRDA’s total commitment to the successful implementation of the agreed terms of reference in the MoU.
While commending the ASUBEB leadership for driving the MoU, and the partners for their commitment to the partnership, the Director, Quality Assurance, ASUBEB, Lady Stella Ezepue stated that it is the duty of Quality Assurance Department to ensure high quality basic education in the State, in addition to prescribing, monitoring, evaluation and maintenance of the minimum standards, especially in the area of teaching and learning process in the State’s basic education sector.
Present at the event were other NASRDA team members including Mr. Samaila Maiwadda and Mr. Joseph Bala; ASUBEB Board Members such as Permanent Member 1, Hon. Mrs Ifeyinwa Anatune, Permanent Member 3, Lady Chinyere Azodo, Director Social Mobilisation Department, Mrs Amaka Ikedimma; and the UBEC Anambra State Coordinator, Mr. Kingsley Nlewedim, among others.
Training, demonstrations, interactive session, questions and answers featured at the event.
