When teachers arrive state-owned primary school in Yenagoa, Sagbama, Ogbia, or Kolokuma/Opokuma local government areas in Bayelsa state they do not sign in with pen and paper.

They bring out their blue government-issued teacher-tablets, punch a few buttons and in a matter of seconds their exact arrival time is electronically transmitted to a server which can be monitored by basic education sector policy makers in the state capital, Yenagoa.

Their lesson guides for the day are also sent to the teacher-tablets (prior to any school day). As each teacher progresses through the day, it is known remotely, which teachers are actually in class teaching and which teachers are not.

Interestingly, teachers who leave school before closing time can also be identified. This was not possible a few months ago. BayelsaPRIME (Bayelsa Promoting Reform to Improve and Modernise Education) a basic education reform policy which has changed the way teachers and education sector policy makers do their jobs introduced the changes as the government launched the programme to engender more efficient, productive schools.

BayelsaPRIME is an EdTech programme that is using technology to improve access to basic education across Bayelsa state.

Before the state launched the programme, there were at least sixteen distinct challenges ailing the school system.

Teacher absenteeism, irrelevant curriculum, inadequate equipment and materials for teaching and learning and poor administrative skills of teachers weighed heavily on the system. The evidence was poor learning outcomes among children and widespread loss of confidence in state-owned schools. But this is not an exclusive Bayelsa problem.

Beyond state borders

Across states in Nigeria, circa 10.5 million children are not in school according to UNICEF. Despite the free primary education at the disposal of Nigerians, the full benefits do not trickle down. In Bayelsa, unconfirmed figures put the number of out-of-school children at over 200,000. And this is just an aspect of the problem nationally.

Four in 10 children in state-owed primary schools cannot read while eight out 10 are unable to read for comprehension, in a country where children make up a significant portion of the population.

BayelsaPRIME is a rational response to these challenge at the state level. Through the programme, the Bayelsa state government is addressing the issue of out-of-school children, while also ensuring that learning outcomes drastically improve sustainably in the state in the shortest time possible.

What makes BayelsaPRIME different?

Imagine a scenario where previously poorly motivated teachers are retrained, reoriented and equipped with technology to deliver on their mandates as teachers. Imagine a scenario where children in remote, riverine villages have the same quality of lessons as those in the state capital.

Imagine a scenario where all children get the same quality of education irrespective of their backgrounds or the socioeconomic status of their parents. Imagine a scenario where teachers cannot falsify their school arrival or departure times and the government knows the set of teachers who are doing their jobs and those that are not. These are possible through the technology that BayelsaPRIME provides.

In January and February 2023, the first set of over 2,000 teachers and 222 headteachers from the primary school system were retrained for 10 days in reediness for implementation of BayelsaPRIME in their schools.

The period was utilised to train, orient, and equip the teachers with the necessary technical tools, classroom management skills, and pedagogy required to dramatically improve learning outcomes in their schools.

They received 2,439 teacher tablets while their headteachers were equipped with smartphones, power banks, and chargers to facilitate their role in improving learning outcomes in schools. Since their return to the class room, these equipments have help them carry out their new assignments daily.

Apart from the initial training, an ongoing coaching, mentoring, and support is in place for all 222 schools in the programme across the four pilot local government areas to ensure that teachers are effectively implementing the strategies and techniques learnt during the induction training. They are additionally provided continuous refresher trainings to improve the implementation process.

But the most exciting part is with the children. For the first time school is fun. “We were shocked to see that children were at the forefront of getting other children back in school when we resumed,” a teacher at Community Primary School II, Trofani, Sagbama local government area, Amanda Akpogumere said a month after BayelsaPRIME came alive in her school.

The programme introduced a whole new culture in the classroom. Making learning fun for children. They sing when they are board and need motivation. And teachers are no longer frightening to the children, the BayelsaPRIME pedagogy ensures that children are free to speak up during the teaching and learning process and there is direct feedback and reward for excellence.

For teachers, the programme has meant more support from the state government because the teacher tablets have obliterated the drudgery of preparing long lesson notes and supplier proven lesson notes which can be studied before hand in preparation for classes.

For the headteachers, there has been an ease in the way schools are managed. All pupil related records are electronically stored in Apps provided by the reform programme, while data has become the backbone of performance review and evaluation.

On a visit to schools in late March 2023, Chief Victor Okubonanabo, the Executive Secretary of Bayelsa State Universal Basic Education Board (Bayelsa SUBEB), noted that “I am seeing changes in the system. For the fact that we haven’t gone too far, if I can see these changes, it means we will get to a better level in the near future. With BayelsaPRIME, basic education will drastically improve across Bayelsa State.”

Stakeholders within the system attest to the impact technology is playing as government addresses the sixteen weaknesses of the basic education system in Bayelsa state.

The post EdTech: BayelsaPRIME, a Bold Move at Democratising Quality Basic Education appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

This was disclosed by NewGlobe’s Vice President for Policy and Partnerships, Mrs Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, at the recent 2025 State-Level Workshop for Foundation Learning and Out-of-School Children held in Abuja. The Nigeria Governors’ Forum organised the event in partnership with the NewGlobe.

The workshop was convened against the backdrop of a deepening crisis in Nigeria’s basic education sector, where over 10 million children remain out of school, the highest figure globally, according to UNICEF, and three out of four cannot read and understand a simple passage by age 10, as reported by the World Bank.

Despite increasing enrolments, many pupils leave school without mastering foundational skills. Discussions at the event identified the root causes as systemic: an undervalued teaching workforce, fragmented policy execution, chronic underfunding, and a misplaced emphasis on infrastructure rather than learning outcomes.

NewGlobe’s Vice President for Policy and Partnerships, Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu, reinforced the urgency of the moment. “If we do not act quickly and deliberately, we will be too late for millions of children,” she warned. Describing the situation as “a system-wide emergency,” she added, “The evidence is clear: with the right tools, training, and data, foundational learning outcomes can be transformed at scale. We’re supporting states to build resilient, future-ready education systems that deliver measurable results because Nigeria’s children deserve nothing less than a system that works for every learner.”

Presenting a model for transforming foundational education, NewGlobe highlighted its evidence-backed, data-driven, and technology-enabled solution as a trusted implementation partner to state governments.

The model focuses on strengthening public education from within, equipping teachers and school leaders with real-time digital tools, structured lesson guides, continuous coaching, and performance dashboards that ensure instructional quality and accountability.

NewGlobe’s holistic approach aligns with national curricula, promotes teacher confidence, and empowers states to drive measurable learning gains across thousands of classrooms.

State-led programmes in partnership with NewGlobe, including EKOEXCEL in Lagos, KwaraLEARN in Kwara, BayelsaPRIME, in Bayelsa, Edo, and JigawaUNITE, in Jigawa, have already delivered compelling outcomes.

In Bayelsa, literacy improved by 20 percentage points in just nineteen weeks, and enrolment surged from 25,000 to over 40,000 pupils.

In Kwara, foundational literacy and numeracy deficiencies were halved in under two years, with over 60,000 additional pupils enrolled.

Lagos, once lagging in education outcomes, now leads with one of the country’s lowest learning deprivation rates. Independent evaluations confirm that students in NewGlobe-supported schools achieve learning gains up to 53% higher than peers in conventional schools.

Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, the governor of Kwara State, in a speech delivered by NGF Education Advisor Leo The Great, stressed that improving access alone is not enough. “Access does not equal learning.

Many children sit in classrooms but leave unable to read, write, or do basic arithmetic. The priority is not more schools, but ensuring every child is truly learning. In 2025, we should have daily visibility into every public school.” Citing success in states like Kwara, Edo, Bayelsa, Lagos, and Jigawa, he added, “Structured pedagogy is working. In such schools, teacher feedback has increased by over 200 percent. That’s real behaviour change.”

Also, speaking at the event, Aisha Garba, UBEC executive secretary called for unified action, stating, “We are here to work for one client, the Nigerian child.”

She urged stakeholders to “align with our agenda, not run parallel systems,” adding that “access remains our biggest challenge,” and the intervention fund must “respond to real needs, not just check boxes for classrooms.”

“At NewGlobe, our mission is clear: to bridge foundational learning gaps and help build future-ready education systems that truly serve Nigeria’s children. We are proud of the progress achieved with our current state partners, but the need is national. We are ready to support more states committed to transforming learning outcomes, because the future of our young people depends on the quality of education they receive today,” added Ifeyinwa Ugochukwu.

NewGlobe is a trusted, evidence-backed partner for state-led foundational learning reforms in Nigeria, focused on strengthening public education systems from within.

Its science- and data-driven approach combines advanced pedagogy, detailed lesson planning, and real-time data to track progress and guide strategy.

By working closely with state governments and stakeholders, such as FGN and UBEC, NewGlobe ensures alignment with national priorities and supports scalable, sustainable reforms across the country.

As Nigeria grapples with the urgent challenge of learning poverty and an ever-growing number of out-of-school children, the workshop reaffirmed that systemic transformation is not only possible, it is already underway.

With political will, NewGlobe’s data-driven solutions, and collaborative implementation, a new era of public education is within reach.

The momentum built at this workshop signals a national commitment to ensure that every Nigerian child is not only in school but truly learning.

The post NewGlobe, NGF Lead National Dialogue on Foundational Learning with Nigerian States appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

As Commissioners of Education from across the country gather for the Nigerian Governors Forum program State-Level Solutions to Foundational Learning and Out-of-School Children, one truth must guide our deliberations: Nigeria’s out-of-school crisis cannot be solved by access alone.

Building classrooms or hiring teachers is only part of the solution. The deeper challenge lies in what happens inside those classrooms.

Too many children are dropping out of school not because schools are out of reach, but because schools are not working. When learners sit in class for years without gaining basic literacy or numeracy skills, families begin to disengage. And when parents lose confidence in what public education can deliver, enrolment stalls and dropout rates rise.

Bayelsa is taking a different path. With the launch of BayelsaPRIME (Bayelsa Promoting Reforms to Improve and Modernise Education), we are confronting the core issues that keep children out of school. We are not just focusing on access. We are building public trust in public education by ensuring that every child who walks into a classroom learns, and learns well.

In just 19 instructional weeks, BayelsaPRIME has achieved a 20 percentage point reduction in the number of Primary 1 pupils unable to read a single word.

This is not anecdotal. It is data-backed evidence of system-level change. More crucially, it is beginning to reverse the national trend.

While declining enrolment has been acknowledged as a challenge in Nigeria due to learning poverty and weak school quality, Bayelsa’s public school enrolment has grown from 25,000 to over 40,000 pupils. And we are gaining more children each term than we lose.

This increase is not the result of a mass enrolment campaign. It is the natural effect of building a system that works. Parents are making the choice to bring their children back into the school system because they are seeing real learning take place.

His Excellency, Governor Douye Diri, has been clear in his vision. Bayelsa is not interested in paper qualifications without substance.

We are investing in science, technical and foundational learning to produce young people who can thrive in the future workforce. Digital tools, structured lesson plans, and real-time monitoring are not luxuries.

They are necessary to ensure quality and equity, particularly in a state like Bayelsa where the challenges of oil pollution, seasonal flooding and low population density require adaptive and resilient solutions.

At the Education World Forum earlier this year, Governor Diri spoke about these reforms in an interview with Times Higher Education.

He made it clear that education is central to socio-economic progress, and that any government failing to prioritise it risks undermining national stability.

It was also at that global forum that Bayelsa had the opportunity to share its education transformation at the ICESCO High-Level Ministerial Dialogue, in front of ministers from 53 member states.

We demonstrated how Bayelsa is using foundational learning reform to respond to climate challenges, improve system visibility, and strengthen public confidence.

As we engage in peer learning during this workshop, Bayelsa is not claiming to have all the answers. But we are proving that real change is possible when learning is placed at the centre of education reform. We are showing that it is possible to reverse the out-of-school crisis not just by building more schools, but by making existing ones deliver better outcomes.

To my fellow Commissioners and leaders in basic education, the solution to our out-of-school crisis begins with restoring credibility in public education. Foundational learning is not just an education priority.

It is a national imperative. Every child who walks into a classroom deserves the chance to learn, succeed, and build a better future.

Let this workshop be more than a dialogue. Let it be a turning point where we move from admiring the problem to applying practical, data-driven solutions that keep children in school and help them thrive once they are there.

The post BayelsaPRIME: Restoring Confidence in Public Education: How Bayelsa is Tackling the Root Causes of Out-of-School Children appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

“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.

The post BayelsaPRIME is Redefining Teaching and Learning for 100,000 Children appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.

A short meeting will follow before she, alongside other teachers, will walk towards an open space in the school for morning devotion with the circa 1,500 children in the school.

At the short meeting with the headteacher, a process called syncing is carried out in which Mrs. Namah-Nabena’s teacher tablet will be paired with the headteacher’s smartphone. This process allows for marking the exact time of her arrival in school, transfer of vital information, teaching guides and other bits of information relevant to classroom management into her tablet.

Since February 2023, this has been the practice in 222 schools across Bayelsa State where the state government is combating the literacy challenge that is facing much of the developing world, including Nigeria.

Last September, Nigeria’s ministry of Education revealed that an estimated over 76 million adults in Nigeria are non-literates, representing over 30 percent of the population of Africa’s most populous nation.

As the global community marks International Literacy Day with the theme – Promoting literacy for a world in transition: Building the foundation for sustainable and peaceful societies, the need for the deployment of literacy as a tool for building a sustainable, peaceful society is at the centre of the conversation. But Africa and most countries on the continent are pacing behind.

A note released by UNESCO in September 2022 indicated that only a third of 10-year-olds globally are estimated to be able to read and understand a simple written story. The rest around two-thirds (64%) are unable to cover this marker for minimum proficiency in reading comprehension.

In Nigeria, the situation is grim. “No fewer than 70 per cent of children in Nigerian schools are suffering from learning poverty (a situation where 10-year-olds cannot read or understand a simple text),” UNESCO said of Nigeria.

BayelsaPRIME, the signature basic education reform programme of the Bayelsa State government aims to address that anomaly using a tech-based approach coupled with learning methods that have been affirmed to deliver superior learning outcomes by Nobel prize-winning Professor of Economics Michael Kremer (Based on research conducted in Kenya).

Since February, the government of Bayelsa State has procured over 5,280 teacher tablets, smartphones and power banks in a bid to address the issue of learning poverty in its schools.

At present over 41,000 children in 222 schools with over 2,000 teachers benefit from the reform which is designed to significantly improve their literacy and numeracy skills as they prepare for lifelong learning.

Back in 2022 when the National Ministry of Education presented its literacy findings at a conference, Goodluck Opiah, the Minister of State for Education, noted that “as we collectively forge ahead in the utilisation of digital modernisation as offered by emerging global technologies, Nigeria has adopted a holistic approach that involves all key stakeholders in meeting the learning needs of youths and adults of different profiles and in different environments.”

Indeed, Bayelsa is among the few states that have gone the extra mile. Like Edo, Lagos, Kwara and more recently, Ekiti, Bayelsa has been a champion of basic education reform.

The BayelsaPRIME way

Implementation of BayelsaPRIME began with a comprehensive survey which established the state of numeracy and literacy of children in public schools in the state. As expected, there was a lot of intervention to be done.

A comprehensive plan was put in place to cover these gaps based on the peculiarities of the environment.

Nationally common challenges including teacher truancy, poor learning materials, inadequate lesson notes and instructional materials as well as outdated classroom management methods were identified as issues requiring reform.

All of these were addressed on a case-by-case basis using requisite technology and the global best practice in basic education.

With the implementation of BayelsaPRIME, no longer do teachers fake attendance as they have to be physically present in school to mark attendance using their tablets.

No longer can teachers refuse to participate or refuse to teach in class since their lesson completion rates are monitored remotely using modern telephony.

No longer do teachers go into class with substandard lesson notes since they are equipped with tested and proven lesson guides that they can study and internalize to deliver impactful lessons.

No longer are schools left to run without key performance indicators which they aim to achieve.

In Bayelsa, technology is making it possible to predict the performance of teachers, schools and children.

UNESCO is clear about the role that literacy plays in building more inclusive, peaceful, just, and sustainable societies.

It notes that “Literacy is central to the creation of such societies, while progress in other areas of development contributes to generating interest and motivation of people to acquire, use, and further develop their literacy and numeracy skills.”

The post BayelsaPRIME: Bridging Literacy Gap through EdTech appeared first on Tech | Business | Economy.