By Mohamed Macarthy
The Directorate of Science Technology and Innovation (DSTI) in partnership with UNICEF has on the 12th February 2022 trained Secondary School pupils on the use of the newly launched digital learning platform; the Sierra Leone Learning Passport.
The platform is designed to help pupils in public examination classes’ access past questions and other learning materials through their mobile phones with or without internet service.
The Project Coordinator for DSTI, Bani Foster said that one of their primary responsibilities is to help improve the educational system by digitizing every bit of their works and by extension for secondary school pupils to be inclusive in executing their core mandates.
Foster said since the launch of the Sierra Leone Learning Passport App, this is their first engagement with pupils from different schools in Freetown. He added that the rationale for their maiden engagement is to help educate pupils on how to access the upshift programme which contains other essential courses in order to aid them to think faster in solving community problems and how to address them swiftly and accordingly.
The project coordinator said that the Digital Learning Hub at IPAM is a pilot phase and that they are working firmly with their main funding partner, UNICEF in order to ensure that the Digital learning Centre is being established in the provinces.
The Outreach Child Welfare Officer for National Commission for Children, Mahmoud Keita said that they came with pupils from Children Forum Network (CFN) to primarily understand how the Digital Learning Hub operates and also for their pupils to learn some fundamentals on the E-Upshift Program.
Keita noted that they are working in collaboration with DSTI in popularizing their functionalities to school pupils so that they will be visiting their learning centers routinely for onwards training on the Upshift programme as well as the Learning Platform. He added that plans are on the way to be extending invitations to other schools so that heads of schools will be sending a limited number of pupils for them to get acquainted with the learning center in order to ensure they improve on their knowledge of the different digital learning platform.
Keita added that they are using CFN as a renowned children’s platform across the country so that every child will be identified for them to benefit from the opportunity.
One of the training facilitators at the Digital Learning Hub, Alhaji Amara Kamara noted that the hub is always opened from Monday to Friday and it is meant for all classes of people in the educational pursuit including the working-class population across the country to learn the fundamentals of computer.
He added that DSTI is very cognizant of the challenges most secondary school pupils are being faced within recent times which is why they had started bringing pupils on board as a pilot phase.
A former pupil of the Anni Walsh Memorial School, Marion Yeanor Samura said the session is very timely and educative. She added that she was impressed with the whole process, noting that it does not only give a guide for pupils preparing for public exams but also helps them to broaden their knowledge on computer use.
Samura encouraged her colleagues to maximize the opportunity in order to add value to their knowledge base. She added that the world has grown rapidly towards digital knowledge which is why she wants her colleague pupils to be visiting the Digital learning Hub routinely.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (16/02/22)
