Lagos State Government in collaboration with Deux Project, Microsoft Nigeria and Infographics has concluded the pilot training phase of Digital Literacy Curriculum for School Teachers. The training program provided teachers with ICT education, as well as tools needed to effectively train students on IT using Microsoft technologies.

The pilot training program, under the auspices of the Microsoft IT Academy, has had eighty- three teachers drawn from Agidingbi Secondary School as well as Birch Freeman High School and Gaskiya Secondary School trained under the Digital Literacy Curriculum. Having successfully concluded the two-week training course, the participating schools are now Certified Microsoft IT Academies.

To formally mark the completion of the course, certificates of successful completion were presented to all the forty teachers of the second batch , at a well-attended ceremony at the premises of Birch Freeman High School, Surulere, by the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Hon.(Mrs) Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire on Thursday, 22nd December 2011. While Congratulating the teachers on the successful completion of the training, the Deputy Governor said ICT training will help the teachers to adopt more innovate approach to imparting knowledge so as to achieve accelerated outcome. She added that this is even more necessary in view of the fact that there is much ground to cover as a result of long years of neglect of school system development. She opined that ‘there is no amount of investment in school development that can be too much as the future of youths is vital to country’s future”.

The Microsoft ICT Academy was selected for Lagos State Schools not only because of the World Class Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC), but the fact that Microsoft has an extensive network of partners and support ecosystem that makes Microsoft the preferred platform of choice in Nigeria and beyond by Government, Private Sector, and Education.

Dr. Walter Olatunde, Project Director, Deux Project Limited, speaking at the ceremony, said that the Microsoft IT Academy programme enables schools to offer a world-class IT curriculum to students utilising the latest Microsoft technologies while learning about information technology. He added that “the programme also aims to link academic learning to job skills, thus allowing students to graduate with the IT skills that they will need to advance in their future careers with minimal adjustment in the working world. At the end of the program, students are given Microsoft technology certifications”.

Microsoft effectively partners with several companies and even governments in Nigeria to deliver its IT requirements in the country and this programme is an exemplary instance of such collaboration. Deux Project, who sponsored and managed the program, ensuring all the hardware and software requirements are met by donating the laptops in the three schools, incidentally constructed the new Agidingbi School as well as Birch Freeman and Gaskiya Schools buildings. But their commitment did not stop there. Deux believed that a 21st Century school should have World Class content and initiated discussions with Lagos state and Microsoft to ensure that Governor’s vision of quality ICT capacity building combined with 21st Century schools would be a reality.

The Digital Literacy Curriculum courses are targeted at the school teachers. The programme provides teachers the ability to make and share meaning in different modes and formats; to create, collaborate and communicate effectively and to understand how and when digital technologies can best be used to support these processes. The outcomes of already concluded pilot phase of the programme, have revealed the potential impact of the training. The feedbacks from trainees indicate that much impact have been made by the training on the IT knowledge and skills of the participants. Trainees feedback session revealed that the programme is unique as it does not only provide adequate opportunity for hands –on training in IT but also includes vital topics like productivity programmes, computer securities and digital lifestyles that are frequently ignored in the traditional IT courses. One of the beneficiaries of the programme and Head of Department, Language and Art Department, Gaskiya School, Mr Desmond Ahoanya said that the training has greatly improved their digital know-how from zero to over seventy percent. Also testifying at the ceremony, the Principal , Birch Freeman High School, Mr Christopher Agbonjinmi acknowledged that before the training, most teachers in the school used the calculator to prepare students result. But with training, they could henceforth produce data using Excel package for their calculation.