The MultiChoice Nigeria, has given a boost to
Bayelsa State education development with the opening of a MultiChoice Resource Centre (MRC) initiative, reports DigitalSENSE Business News.
Multichoice is reported by DigitalSENSE Business News as a leading provider of premium
pay-TV services on the DStv and
GOtv platforms, which has extended its major Corporate Social Investment
project in the education sector.
DigitalSENSE
Business News also reports that MultiChoice’s Resource Centes began in 2004
and has extended to 10 additional public secondary schools in Bayelsa State.
The CSR initiative kicked-off in Abuja and Lagos State will avail students of
10 public schools in Bayelsa State access to world-class learning facilities.
The intervention comprises a TV set, a HD PVR decoder, satellite dish, a power generator, uninterrupted power system (UPS), a set of chairs and desks for the laboratory,
in additional to training for teachers. The MRC facilitates teaching and
learning enhancement by enabling school children access educational TV channels
that include: Education TV, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, BBC
Knowledge, BBC World, History Channel, Animal Planet and Mindset Learn, at no
cost.
The novel intervention which has been introduced to
274 schools in 27 states of the federation and proven to make critical impact
on the knowledge levels and understanding especially of technical subject areas
by students, is now within the reach of students of the public secondary
schools in Bayelsa State, bringing the total to 284 in 28 states across the
country, including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
A commemorative commissioning ceremony of the 10
new MRC in Bayelsa State held at Saint Jude’s Secondary School, Yenagoa, on
Thursday, January 16. The launch in Bayelsa is in furtherance of the ninth
Phase of the MRC project, which include scheduled launches in other beneficiary
schools in some select states to be announced by the company.
The Commissioner for Education, Bayelsa State, Hon.
Salo Adikumo, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Bayelsa State Ministry of
Education, Hon Durban Whyte, lauded MultiChoice and its implementing partner,
Innovative Technology Literacy Services Limited, for the initiative which she
described as a veritable tool for the provision of valuable learning resource
components for public schools across the country. “The MultiChoice Resource
Centre project, which provides valuable learning resource components for 10
selected public schools in the State of Bayelsa to support the government’s
efforts especially at a time when the Chief Executive Officer of the State, His
Excellency Governor Dickson Seriake is leading a restoration agenda following
his declaration of a state of emergency in the education sector, is a welcome
development,” he said.
“The launch in Yenagoa makes Bayelsa a proud and
happy 28th beneficiary state in Nigeria from the laudable project funded by
MultiChoice in several African countries. This partnership is to reaffirm the
commitment of our administration to providing qualitative education to the
entire students of the state and to sustain the high level of educational
development attained through innovative project like the MRC. By this
achievement, our students are guaranteed to be kept abreast of happening on the
global scene through methodical teaching and learning introduced by the
resource centre project,” Hon Adikumo added.
Mr. John Ugbe, Managing Director, MultiChoice Nigeria,
said “The resource centre initiative is our corporate social investment project
that has grown from only four centres at inception.”
He added that the technological, economic,
socio-political advancement of any country has a direct correlation with its
level of educational development and that the future of a country is
intrinsically tied to the quality of education that the youths are exposed to,
a belief which informs MultiChoice’s roll-out of the audio-visual learning aid
across the country. He further said that MultiChoice plans to launch the
resource centres in all the states of the federation.
“The MultiChoice Resource Centre project is our way
of promoting the use of integrated and communication technologies to raise the
standard of education by deploying the imagery of sight and sound to make
learning more vivid and creative. To achieve these, we have partnered with the
relevant educational stakeholders to integrate learning from the resource
centres into the relevant school curriculum. This way, we are assured that
television, which is a powerful communication tool, is also used as a potent
education resource,” Ugbe stated.
Mrs Ronke Bello, Managing Director, Innovative
Technology Literacy Services Ltd, said, “The
MultiChoice resource centre is designed to grant beneficiary schools access to
the special MultiChoice Education bouquet with the aim of
integrating the programmes into their curriculum to further enhance the
teaching and learning processes in classrooms.”
She added that MultiChoice,
in conjunction with Innovative Technology
Literacy Services also conducted a Teacher-Training
programme for 50 selected teachers, five each from
the 10 beneficiary schools. “The teachers were trained as
Master-Trainers who would in turn train their colleagues on the use and
integration of the special education bouquet into their learning environment. A
MultiChoice Resource Centre Educator’s Guide has also been provided to guide
the teachers and the schools on the use and maintenance of the facilities.”
Chuks Egbuna/GEE
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