Recurring national grid collapse hampers education — Emir of Zazzau laments

The Emir of Zazzau, Amb. Ahmad Bamali says the recurring collapse of the national grid is hampering the educational development of Nigeria.

“This ugly development is especially truncating e-learning in the country, and the earlier it is reversed, the better for education in the nation,” he further decried.

Newsverge reports that the emir spoke on Tuesday in Kaduna at the 2nd Annual National Conference, 2024, organised by the National Teachers’ Institute (NTI).

Newsverge also reports that the four-day conference has as its theme; ‘E-facilitation Delivery System in Nigerian Schools: Prospects, Challenges and Way Forward’.

Represented by the District Head of Doka, Kaduna North Local Government Area, Alhaji Jibrin Magaji, Bamali also said, “E-facilitation is very important.

“It is very important as it facilitates effective e-learning and teaching in schools at all levels.”

The traditional ruler also listed other formidable challenges to education in Nigeria to include inadequate access to internet facilities.

“Another problem affecting education in Nigeria is the low digital literacy of the students and teachers across Nigeria,”the emir added.

Bamali, however, opined that with plausible measures like sustained training and retraining, the obnoxious development could be redressed.

“Instructively, with what NTI is doing today, the unpalatable story of our education could be changed for the better, ”he said.

Bamali called for the reinvigoration of monitoring and evaluation, as well as ensuring sustainable policies.

In a welcome address, the Director-General of the Institute, Prof. Musa Garba-Maitafsir, recalled that he had fully transformed the institute from a completely analogue agency to a fully digitalised one in a span of over three years.

He said,” In the last three years and some years I have been holding sway here, I have transformed NTI to a world-class Teacher Training Institute.

“Ironically, NTI is now more recognised outside Nigeria than within the country as we have been successfully conducting a myriad of foreign trainings.

“We are also doing such training in Nigeria and organisations like UNICEF are always engaging us.”

In a message, Gov. Umar Namadi of Jigawa underscored the importance of e-learning to the development of Nigeria’s education sector.

The Executive Secretary, Kaduna State Scholarship and Loans Board, Prof. Yaya Ibrahim said that it would partner notable institutions like NTI to train and retrain primary and secondary school teachers in the state.