Nigeria, South Korea hail KOICA’s education project, target expansion
Nigeria and South Korea have reaffirmed their commitment to deepening educational collaboration following the successful completion of the first phase of the smart education project. The programme, implemented by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in partnership with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), targeted schools in six states; Kano, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Ekiti, Cross River […]
Nigeria and South Korea have reaffirmed their commitment to deepening educational collaboration following the successful completion of the first phase of the smart education project.
The programme, implemented by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) in partnership with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), targeted schools in six states; Kano, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Ekiti, Cross River and the Federal Capital Territory
The schools were equipped with modern digital learning infrastructure, teacher training, and locally developed e-learning content.
Speaking, project manager, PM, UBION Consortium, Professor Dae Joon Hwang, emphasised the importance of sustainability, calling for greater parental and community involvement.
He assured that the second phase expected to expand the model to 37 smart schools nationwide will begin soon.
Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu while speaking at the official closing ceremony in Abuja, described the project as a proof of concept for digital transformation in basic education.
He commended the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) for its interventions in Nigeria, saying the initiative had demonstrated that respectful, mutually supportive international partnerships could deliver tangible results.
“Educating a child anywhere in the world helps the whole world. The confidence and skills we have seen in our children today are the product of this collaboration,” he said.
Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Aisha Garba, said the project titled “Implementation of Multimedia Learning Environment and Teaching Capacity for Nigeria Public Primary and Junior Secondary Schools” had changed the landscape of basic education.
Since its launch in 2021, she noted, the programme had delivered Nigeria’s first Smart Education Master Plan, trained over 300 teachers and school leaders, set up six state-of-the-art content development studios, and created nearly 4,000 digital learning resources in mathematics and science.
“These are not just numbers; they are lives touched and futures reshaped,” she said, adding that UBEC’s reforms had removed two-decade-old bottlenecks preventing states from accessing matching grants, allowing quicker deployment of resources.
Country Director of the Korea International Co-operation Agency (KOICA), Eunsub Kim, said the project uses a blended learning approach, shifting classrooms from teacher-centred to student-centred learning.
Represented by the agency’s Manager, David Nkwa, he noted that while the national curriculum remains the same, teaching methods and delivery are reimagined to boost learner engagement and outcomes.
He said: “We’re able to see that students from the smart schools have performed better, especially in mathematics and science subjects than students from other schools. So basically, this project was made to bring about improvements in learning outcomes in the school and that’s what has happened so far.”
Project Coordinator for the Project Management Consortium (PMC), Tosin Odedele, said the initiative, launched in 2021 was designed to digitally transform basic education, covering pupils from Early Childhood Care Development and Education (ECCDE) to Junior Secondary School.
Odedele explained that each pilot school received a state-of-the-art content development studio where trained teachers produce indigenous digital lessons, including animated science and mathematics content, uploaded to a learning management system for classroom use.
He said: “Besides the infrastructure that has been provided there’s also the component of capacity building whereby we invited teachers to go to Korea. One to understudy what smart schools look like in Korea and then to also get to be trained in digital content creation and then we also had the second part of that training that happened in Nigeria.
“Now that pool of teachers are the ones that are now creating indigenous digital educational content that the children are using in the classroom. These contents are what is uploaded into what we call the learning management system where the students now pull down this content and then use it in the classroom.
“Instead of solely relying on chalkboards, pupils can now learn with interactive, engaging materials. Comparative assessments show that students from smart schools outperform those from conventional public schools in mathematics and basic science,” he said.