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The year of the Bayelsa Child
Governor Douye Diri is changing the academic fortunes of thousands of children through BayelsaPRIME. Parents, teachers and pupils attest to it, writes Gilbert Ekwugbe.
In the early hours of May 20, just before the sun sat firmly in the sky, Mrs. Timi Iboro, a teacher at Reverend Proctor Memorial Primary School in Kiama walked briskly towards the school where she has been teaching for the past four years.
She arrived twenty-five minutes to the time she would have been deemed late, brought out her government-issued teacher tablet, synchronized it with her headteacher’s smartphone before performing other duties.
For teachers in public primary schools across Bayelsa State, punctuality and presence in school have become a major priority since BayelsaPRIME (Promoting Reform to Improve and Modernize Education), a basic education reform programme was introduced by the state governor, Senator Douye Diri.
Designed to drastically improve learning outcomes among children, the reform programme is already showing significant promise.
“This is the year we finally got a reform that is addressing some of the challenges we face in school. There are a lot of things that have changed since BayelsaPRIME was introduced, “Mrs. Iboro said later in the afternoon while observing a 15 minute break.
She added, “These days, we have eyes in the sky that monitor us to ensure that we arrive at school on time and we are teaching while in school or leave at the right time.”
Modern telephony technology
Using modern telephony technology, complex data analysis and insights from the Science of Learning, BayelsaPRIME has creatively proffered solutions to key challenges bedevilling basic education systems, not only in Nigeria, but across Africa.
Such issues as teacher absenteeism and lateness, low skill level of teachers, weak curriculum and outdated learning materials are addressed by the reform.
“If a teacher is not in school or if the teacher is in school but not teaching, the basic education sector managers at Bayelsa State Universal Basic Education Board (Bayelsa SUBEB) and Ministry of Education can tell remotely, “Iboro said.
Essentially, when teachers arrive at school, they clock in using their teacher tablets. A signal is immediately sent to a central server that warehouses data on what is going on in schools. As they teach throughout the day, their lesson completion rates are tracked through the complex algorithms underpinning BayelsaPRIME. They also clock out using the teacher tablets.
Each teacher or school that has unacceptable attendance or lesson completion records can be identified remotely and corrective measures are applied to stop further infractions.
“Some teachers began to call the reform ‘monitoring spirit’ when it started, this is because no one could falsely claim they came early when in fact they were late, “Mrs. Iboro said, a faint smile appearing on her face.
Interestingly, the programme has also created a culture of punctuality among pupils. Because they are sure that their teachers will be in school when they arrive early.
All pupils in the system have unique identification numbers and their attendance is also marked using the teacher tablet. To encourage the most punctual among them, their names are placed on a segment of the class board referred to as the Character Board as a reward for punctuality. This also applies to other positive behaviours.
“We never knew that recognizing children for punctuality would yield such results. Now, the children literally try to outdo each other in arriving at school early so that their names can be on the Character Board, and this is just one area of behavioural improvement we have noticed since the reform began, Mrs. Iboro added.
Embracing reform
Governor Diri launched BayelsaPRIME in early 2023 to address lingering challenges with learning outcomes in Bayelsa public primary schools. Like most states in Nigeria (and across the West Africa subregion), the undesirable state of learning outcomes was a concern.
A June 2022 World Bank report titled, “From School to jobs: a journey for the young people of Western and Central Africa,” noted that, “education in the region is in crisis with 80% of 10-year-old children in Western and Central Africa unable to read and understand a simple text, and more than 32 million children out of school, which represents the largest share of all regions worldwide.”
Policy makers in the education sector have noted that poor learning outcomes are driven by factors including: teacher absenteeism and lateness, poor quality of learning materials, low skill level of teachers and poor motivation of pupils to learn. Bayelsa State had its fair share of these problems.
The World Bank Report which was put together by a team education sector thought leaders including, Martin Elias De Simone, a brilliant Argentine education economist noted that, “the future of any society lies in its ability to provide its children and youth with the tools and opportunities to flourish as individuals, and to contribute to the collective development of the society and country.” The Bank believes this, “can only be achieved through an education system that is accessible to everyone.”
Governor Diri’s logical response to the need for an educational system that is not only accessible but fair, inclusive and delivers on its mandate of providing life-changing education was BayelsaPRIME.
“We have initiated BayelsaPRIME, an innovative, technology programme in public primary schools in the state, through which we are building a very solid foundation upon which other structures in the educational system will stand,” he said at the 2023 Children’s Day ceremony in Yenagoa through the Commissioner of Education Dr. Gentle Emelah who represented him at the ceremony.
Because of the BayelsaPRIME reform, teacher professional development challenges have been addressed through training, mentorship and provision of technology-based work tools. A first batch of over 2,000 teachers were trained and equipped with teacher tablets in February at the BayelsaPRIME Induction Training.
Headteachers of 220 schools were also part of the training and they were equipped with smartphones that contain relevant state-of-the-art schools and teacher management software.
Apart from the induction training, all teachers and headteachers continue to receive in-school training on a weekly basis to ensure that they are properly guided and maintain set standards.
To address the challenge of learning materials, all teacher tablets are equipped with lessons, so teachers do not have to undergo the drudgery of preparing lesson notes weekly.
Quality learning materials in the form of textbooks, charts, learning cards and other materials are also supplied to the children to enable them to learn and do better.
Since implementation, there has been a rapid adoption of the BayelsaPRIME method across 220 schools. The number of children benefiting from the programme has also snowballed to over 37,000 across four local governments.
The additional four local government areas located in more remote and riverine areas of Bayelsa State are within sight of the programme in the next few weeks.
“We have made huge investments in our education sector by improving our free education programme, providing modern learning tools and creating the right environment for our children to study,” Governor Diri additionally said on Children’s Day. Those investments have proven to be worth it.
“There are noticeable changes in the system, :Mrs. Idoro says. “The children are more eager to learn and you can tell that they are improving. Even their command of the English language has seen a marked improvement. The teachers read from the teacher tablets directly sometimes and the children listen as the teachers read, the whole process is impacting the diction of the children, “she noted.
As for the children, they tell of being eager to come to school because the threat of teachers with long whips has been taken away since BayelsaPRIME does not approve of corporal punishment.
Children who do not match the catch-up rates of others are encouraged and motivated to do so. When the children are weak in school, energizers and cheers are used to bring up their energy levels.
“Since the inception of BayelsaPRIME, I noticed that my child has become more free in expressing her feelings and speaking up. The programme is bringing children who traditionally hid in their shells out. “It is helping our children, “Mrs Ononojuwa, a parent whose daughter attends State School 1, a few meters from the country home of former President Goodluck Jonathan in Otuoke, said.
