The WDSFaI training programme, held yesterday at Noktel Hotel, Ilorin, had in attendance 60 Information Technology, IT-inclined educators from various schools across Kwara state, with the participants engaged in hands-on sessions and collaborative projects, which enabled them gain practical insights into the world of E-STEM and robotics education.

Micheal Joseph, a Robotics specialist who led the training, introduced the participating teachers to the world of robotics, educating them on the basic software and hardware devices used in robotics like LCDs, motors, sensors.

With the theoretical and practical knowledge received, the teachers were able to design and build some autonomous robots like a LED Light bar, intruder alarm, voice-controlled LED, ultrasonic robot and temperature monitoring system, using Arduino Uno, a micro-controller platform, and reusable materials.

Speaking on the need to introduce robotics into STEM education, Joseph said technology skills like coding and robotics have the power to change the world.

He added that it was important to instil in young students, curiosity, creativity, and problem-solving skills that will prepare them for the future of work.

Earlier in her address, Bakare Nafisat, the executive director of the Webfala Digital Skills for all Initiative, said the training programme was targeted at educators with limited knowledge of E-STEM and Robotics, and designed to provide them with basic technical and practical knowledge required to integrate E-STEM and Robotics into their classroom teaching.

Bakare explained that after the training, the teachers are expected to share the knowledge and skills they’ve acquired with their students.

She further disclosed that as part of efforts to support the growth of Robotics education in Kwara, her organization had selected 17 schools in the State that would be presented with free robotic kits, accompanied with specialized training sessions for their students at no cost.

“Additionally, we will be having a 4-weekend robotics training for children between the ages of 9 and 14, starting on 27 January 2024. This project is made possible by the support we received from the Pratt and Whitney and North American Association for Environmental Education. We appreciate them for their unwavering contributions to this programme. It is through their collaboration that we are here today ready to equip schools with the needed knowledge, abilities, and competencies needed for an innovative and sustainable future.

“Our aim with this project is to introduce young students to Robotics and equip with them knowledge and skills to solve problems through computational thinking and practical approach using robots. This project connects students with hands-on learning activities that will enable them to develop technical and problem-solving skills. At our organization, we believe that every child deserves an opportunity to be empowered and excel in this technology and innovation-driven world.

“Since its establishment in 2018, our organization has trained thousands of teachers, students and women in variety of STEM skills including web development, data analysis, graphics design, product design, among others,” she said.

One of the teachers who participated in the robotics training, Mr Kareem Aduagba of Ethical College, Ilorin, expressed appreciation to the organisers and promised to impart in his students skills and knowledge he gained during the training.

Another teacher, Osundeyi Comfort from Aderoju International schools, said she was delighted to have been selected to participate in the training, which she noted had emabled her gain insights into the world or E-STEM and robotics.

This is as the independent broadband quality monitoring company has called on MTN, the largest telecommunications, in terms of subscriber base, to improve on critical areas of its network services across the country.

Enextgen Wireless has been providing consumer experience on mobile networks through its flagship National Independent Wireless Broadband Quality Reporting (NIWBQR) which measures the quality of effort in Radio Frequency engineering invested in commercial LTE network.

In the latest report which focuses on MTN Nigeria LTE network, Enextgen Wireless reported that all of the areas covered are major population centers, not some uninhabited areas where poor coverage quality might be expected.

Report Details:

Poor service quality in many areas on a typical day

On January 31, 2022, poor service quality is shown by many of our probes.

Locations of poor service quality:

Port Harcourt (River State); Egbeda in Lagos; Yaba in Lagos and Kaduna

Quality issues at No. 1 Harvey Road, Yaba – Average latency plot

Garbled voice and many reconnections during  Microsoft Teams voice call sessions. Delayed delivery of IM messages. Unbearable video conference quality.

“This is typical of the quality of the service that MTN provides in Yaba. It is nearly unimaginable to go for 30 minutes on MTN LTE network without noticeable disruption to the quality of the network.

“We have traced these disruptions to increased packet latencies and loss due, occasionally, to poor RF quality but mainly core network issues. These are all problems that MTN could resolve or, at least, mitigate, if it felt it necessary to.

Adelphi, Maryland in poorer RF condition than the one in the last slide for MTN in Yaba, Lagos – Average latency plot in Verizon Wireless

We used similar probe and the same platform as used for MTN in Yaba to generate this plot.

Verizon Wireless has only 4G LTE coverage (no 5G) at this location.

Average RSRP in Verizon Wireless at this location was about -110 dBm while average RSRP at the Yaba location in MTN was about -105 dBm and this was the worst performance period of the day at this location in Verizon Wireless that is not relied upon for internet access.

Typical average latency plot in Verizon Wireless 4G LTE at the same location as previous slide

We used similar probe and the same platform as used for MTN in Yaba to generate this plot.

RF quality in bins where packet latency was higher than 250 ms on January 31, 2022

In this example poor user experience was not due to the quality of the Radio Frequency signal, as each of the bins had high-enough RF quality for good user experience.

In other words, core network issues such as congestion, or insufficient transport layer provisioning are more likely to have been the causes of the poor quality of service.

Huge quantities of packet loss made for extremely poor quality of service at this location.

RF was of high-enough quality to keep UE in LTE. In the alternative, the UE could simply be kept in 3G. Instead, the UE switched frequently between LTE and 3G making the connection completely worthless.

With any amount of care, MTN could avoid this situation by keeping the UE on one of the two networks. This is typically called RF Optimization. For Ilorin basic pre-deployment RF optimization appears lacking.

The MTN 4G LTE network in Ilorin appears to be a case of even perfunctory pre-deployment optimization not being done.

How could this have happened? Could MTN be getting its clue from our government? We understand that the regulatory agency is very busy. We are doing our very best to encourage network operators not to take all the advantages our system afford them at the expense of the ordinary human Nigerians and small enterprises at once.

Good RF quality in LTE. Unnecessary IRATs to 3G contribute to poor quality of service

Commenting on the report, Engineer Aderemi Adeyeye, President of Enext Inc., said:

“When we lodged complaint with MTN, the speed of response was impressive. However as far as we could tell MTN did not take any action beyond letting us know, the next day, they fixed the problem. We have not received any answer to the question of what problem they fixed and/or what they did to fix that problem. All we know is that the issues we reported on persist.

“Honestly, MTN’s paternalistic attitude in response to our complaint boggled our minds.

“MTN appears to be answerable only to MTN. The public being served (at least ordinary Nigerians and small enterprises) has no voice. The regulatory agency seems to have little time to spare for quality monitoring given the enormous amount of time needed for self-adulation. It doesn’t even acknowledge (on its website) the existence of LTE as a 3GPP standard for 4G.

“The reality of the Nigerian context is that broadband internet access is synonymous with LTE internet access.

“The bulk of Nigerians do not have any other access to real internet (we are discounting 2G/3G as means of broadband internet access).

“We welcome specific request for our raw data from MTN if for the purpose of improving the quality issues identified in this report.

“The objective is to entice MTN to improve the quality of its network. We just like millions of other Nigerian individuals and small enterprises rely on the network for broadband internet connection”.

To visualize the quality of 4G LTE coverage in Nigeria, visit the website HERE. Enextgen Wireless is constantly adding probes to cover more areas.