Edojobs, Google, Gidimobile partner to deploy learning app to 20,000 Edo students

Edo State Government has concluded plans to partner Google and Gidimobile, Africa’s first mobile learning platform, to deploy a learning application called gidimo to at least 20,000 Senior Secondary School students in Edo State, to improve learning outcomes.

The partnership is being anchored by Edojobs, Edo state’s job creation and skills development platform, which will work with the companies, to mobilise not less than 150 ‘activators,’ to deliver the mobile software to the students.

Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to the Governor on Skills Development and Job Creation, Mrs. Ukinebo Dare, who disclosed this to journalists, said that the partnership is aimed at providing innovative learning solutions to secondary school students as well as empowering those who would work as activators across the state.

She said the programme is the offshoot of gidimo’s rollout of the app to 100,000 disadvantaged youths across the world, after winning a $1million grant from google.org. She said the deployment of the software will be piloted in Edo State, after which it will be rolled out across the country.

According to her, “Governor Obaseki’s reforms and style of governance has once again attracted a landmark project to the state. This time, secondary school students will be the beneficiaries.

To start the campaign in Edo State, 20,000 students will be granted free access to the gidimo application for a period of one year. A 45 mins to one-hour playtime after school (Monday to Saturday) will be needed to cover the syllabus, after which each user gets 300MB of data at the completion of their syllabus weekly. A competition amongst users/students with the application will be held every week, with the best user rewarded.

She noted that teachers and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members will participate in the programme and will be assigned to schools as activators for the exercise, to sensitise students about the application, how to access and use the app for free.

“This will come with a small remuneration (about N16, 000) from funds allotted for data in the grant received from Google. The app will also allow for activators to earn some money from the retail sales/activation they do.”

On the mode of operation in the pilot phase, she said, “A sample of 5-10 public schools in the state will be selected to pilot the campaign. The academic performance of students using the gidimo app in these schools will be compared with those not using the application to identify the efficacy of the application on the students under survey.

“National competition will be held weekly across various subjects on the application. This is can be in an organised event platform, which can be used to spread the government’s message on its effort towards improving the educational sector in the state.”