Tech News
Does the Nigerian educational system need support from tech companies?
The Educational system should welcome help because in the end, students bear the brunt of our shortcomings.
Published
7 months agoon

Reportedly, Facebook has identified a new era of opportunity to further spread its tentacles in the world’s second largest internet market – India. Few weeks back, the social media giant announced that it had partnered with the Central Board of Secondary Education, a government body that oversees education in private and public schools in India to launch a certified curriculum on digital safety and online well-being, and augmented reality for students and educators in the country.
The goal is to prepare secondary school students for current and emerging jobs and help them develop viable skills. This will be divided in various phases according to Facebook.
The Phases:
- More than 10,000 teachers will be trained.
- These teachers will coach 30,000 students.
Reportedly, the CBSE brochure read “To further their commitment towards digital inclusion and digital empowerment, CBSE and Facebook have partnered to launch curriculum and related training in Augmented Reality, Digital Safety &Online Well-Being and introduce Instagram Toolkit for Teens,”.
Basically, with Facebook there will be an online programme for augmented reality, while with Instagram there will be a workshop on the usage time of the photo-sharing platform and how students and teacher can stay on these platforms.
(READ MORE:COVID-19: FG plans safe school reopening, as WHO discloses new guides to contain virus)
Could This Be What the Nigerian Educational System Needs?
The Nigerian educational sector has its shortcomings and with this pandemic came an alarming number of students stuck at home with no way to carry on learning. Education in this country has always been big business, from elite private schools to affordable options which are barely better than public schools. In the last few years, digital innovators and entrepreneurs have launched startups like uLessons among others to try to keep educating Nigerian students. These platforms have connected tutors/teachers to learners. However, we cannot determine the true impact of these efforts seeing as the country experiences many setbacks to fully enable online learning:
- Underfunding- this is sadly a common factor that affects the advancement of education not only in Nigeria but in Africa.
- Costing- the price of smartphones and other devices as well as mobile internet creates such a gap in these parts. Thankfully, there is the pre-recorded model which may factually not be as effective as learning in real-time but does offer a cheaper option.
The past few weeks have been saturated with debates of whether or not schools are ready to reopen. The Government reportedly agreed to a partial reopening with laid out rules for if they do decide that schools across the country can safely reopen their doors to students. No doubt, the urgency is understandable especially for students in graduating classes but with the unrelenting rise in coronavirus cases, many are against this happening.
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In a hypothetical world where a tech giant like Facebook decides to partner with the Federal Ministry of Education, the benefits could be limitless:
- Providing children the digital skills to stay relevant in an evolving world.
- Personalized learning- helps children learn at the best place for them.
- Possibly boost motivation to learn- students will be more actively engaged when learning digitally.
- Improve fibre connectivity across the country.
- Promoting inclusive education- everyone is involved and active in the educating process.
- Increased learning opportunities as distance is no longer a hindering factor.
- Collaborative learning- this powers transparent and accurate communication between learners and teachers.
Whether the Nigerian educational system needs help from tech giants or not is not the main concern but still, the answer is – the system should welcome help no matter where it emanates from because in the end our students bear the brunt of our shortcomings.
Jenrade is a Senior Marketing Analyst at NetPlusDotCom. NetPlusDotCom is a technology and digital payment company, with a mission to provide innovative payment digital solution. The company has a content partnership with Nairametrics. All articles written by Jenrade or NetPlusDotCom are their opinions and do not represent the opinions of Nairametrics.


Tech News
Twitter launches Clubhouse competitor, Spaces
Twitter has launched Spaces, an app that could rival the popular Clubhouse.

Published
15 hours agoon
February 25, 2021
Social media giant, Twitter has announced the launch of a voice content app for use mainly on iOS. Several users have been invited to join the Spaces feature for testing so far.
Twitter disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday announcing product updates and then during a Q&A session for the Spaces feature.
“Spaces is a place to come together, built around the voices of the people using Twitter, your Twitter community. Spaces are live for as long as they’re open; once ended, they will no longer be available publicly on Twitter,” Twitter said.
READ: Twitter considering subscription fee for Tweetdeck and other new features
It added that the feature would be rolled out to a select few to learn and gather feedback from a variety of communities on Twitter.
“While anyone on iOS will be able to join a Space, only people in the small group will be able to create Spaces. We will expand the list of people who can create Spaces over time,” Twitter added.
READ: Twitter considers paying its staff in Bitcoin
What you should know
- Twitter is not the only social media giant working on a Clubhouse competitor. Nairametrics reported that Facebook is creating an audio chat similar to the popular audio chat app, Clubhouse.
Tech News
New feature on Android allows you schedule text messages to send later
A new feature introduced on Android phones will allow users to schedule a message to be sent at a later time.
Published
20 hours agoon
February 25, 2021
Google announced a new feature for Android phones that will allow you to schedule text messages to send at a later time and date.
This new feature will be available on Android 7 or newer versions of Android. You also need to have the latest version of Google Messages to enjoy this feature.
This new feature will allow you to compose a message ahead of time, whenever it’s convenient for you, then schedule it to be sent later when it’s a more appropriate time.
READ: Here’s why Huawei’s ‘HarmonyOS’ won’t be replacing ‘Android’ anytime soon
According to Google, over half a billion people across the world use Messages to seamlessly and safely connect with family, friends, and others every month so this feature can be particularly helpful especially if you have friends, family, or coworkers, and colleagues at other times zones.
To use this feature, Download the latest version of Google Messages
- Open Google Messages on your Android phone and choose who you want to send a message to.
- Create your text.
- Tap and hold the send button (instead of just tapping it).
- A schedule menu pops up. Choose when you’d like to send it — either later today, later tonight, tomorrow, or a date and time in the future.
READ: Google threatens to remove its search engine from Australia due to media code
That’s it. you’ll see a confirmation that it’s a scheduled message that won’t arrive at the recipient until your chosen date and time.
Other features released for Android includes a new password checkup tool available on devices running on Android 9 and above that lets you know if the password you used has been previously exposed and what to do about it, along with other improvements to products like its screen reader TalkBack for the visually impaired.
READ: Google, Facebook, Twitter stocks drop, investors ponder if big techs have become too powerful
More intuitive gestures, a unified menu, a new reading control menu have been added to TalkBack, Dark theme on Google Maps, Assistant, and Android Auto.
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