In Nigeria, a public-private partnership is aiming to provide 1 million pupils with free e-learning devices and educational content during the COVID-19 crisis.

Collaboration between the First Bank of Nigeria Limited, educational mobile app Roducate and the Lagos state government will offer free online access to educational solutions under the bank’s drive to ease the disruption in learners’ education due to the restrictions related to the pandemic, which – according to Firstbank – have prevented more than 39 million children in Nigeria (from pre-primary school to tertiary institutions) from attending classes.

FirstBank CEO Adesola Adeduntan says the collaboration will also provide disadvantaged pupils with low-end devices preloaded with Roducate offline content accredited by the government-approved curriculum. ‘This solution will see Lagos state offer children in the lower bracket, who may not have access to devices or data from home, affordable smart phones preloaded with the curriculum.’

The phones have SIMs and limited data, which is tied only to the Roducate learning product. That means the learners cannot browse indiscriminately – encouraging safe learning – but can still submit material, such as tests and mock exams.

In conjunction with typical online classes, the Roducate e-learning platform also promotes interactive learning between students through activities such as podcasts and games.

4 August 2020
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