A new sense of purpose can be felt when you visit a state-owned primary school in Bayelsa State.
“Alive, Awake, Alert, Enthusiastic!!!,” the children sing, as their teachers use the play method in all 216 schools under the BayelsaPRIME program.
Almost two years ago, the governor of the state, Senator Douye Diri launched the program to give quality education to all children in state-owned schools.
BayelsaPRIME means Bayelsa Promoting Reform to Improve and Modernize Education.
Tech meets science of learning
The reform program is a commendable example of how the best of school and classroom management; education technology; science of learning; child protection and development strategies have been combined to deliver change.
All teachers in the schools have been issued customized teacher tablets which are used for classroom management.
The names, ages, parents’ names and addresses are captured in the tables. Routine classroom activities like attendance marking, recording of test and exam scores and tracking of pupil performance are done with the tablets.
Additionally, teacher attendance is captured using the tablets, thereby ensuring efficiency and reducing truancy among teachers.
The most striking feature of the tablet however is that customized, proven lesson guides are delivered to the teachers on a bi-weekly basis.
Teachers no longer struggle with sourcing materials to make their notes, this has especially helped those in very remote areas where materials are scare.
Because of the technology, class grades in different schools all take the same lessons simultaneously, bringing uniformity to the system. Essentially, technology is being used to democratize quality education service delivery across rural and urban centers.
Interestingly, the tablets do not need internet access to function, they are energy efficient as a single charge can last for almost a month; also, they are dustproof to preserve their aesthetics and ensure longevity.
On the other hand, each head teacher is issued a smartphone that is loaded with proprietary schools’ management software. Where the daily performance of each teacher can be tracked at the school level.
The daily automatic synchronisation of the teacher tablet with the head teacher smartphone enables the transfer of data from the 216 schools to a central server.
Therefore, in Bayelsa State, at the end of each school day, key information including the number of subjects taught, number of pupils and teachers in school, exact time they arrived and departed, the percentage of lessons completed are all available to the Governor, the Commissioner for Education and other government officials electronically.
Results? So far so good
After only 19 weeks of BayelsaPRIME instruction, the percentage of non-readers in state government primary schools dropped.
A significantly higher number of pupils improved in their ability to comprehend and benefit more from what they read. Primary 6’s comprehension scores were 80% higher than expected, and Primary 2 were triple compared to non-BayelsaPRIME schools.
The program improved the average numeracy scores of every primary grade. Every grade in the program outperformed their peers in comparison schools.
The program dramatically increased the rate at which pupils learn math. Primary 3-5 pupils gained a year worth of mathematics instruction in only 19 weeks.
Also, teachers improved the quality and quantity of their instruction. Their rate of lesson completion increased, as well as their time use.
The future
The measurable success of the reform is leading to an expansion into four additional local government areas. It is expected that by the first quarter of 2025 over 5,000 teachers across 600+ primary schools in Bayelsa will be in the program.
By this time, the reform will be live in communities and local governments which border the Atlantic.
This will mean that teachers in these areas which often slip through the fingers of quality assurance managers at the state capital will finally be covered through technology.
Over 100,000 children will be benefitting from this intervention which has been described as the biggest foray into EduTech in the history of Bayelsa State.
