Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s basic education reform programme, EKOEXCEL, which was launched in 2019 to transform Lagos public primary schools through technology deployment, was honoured with the Most Innovative Digital Learning Platform of the Year at the 19th edition of the Titans of Tech Awards, held on the 21 July in Lagos.
The EKOEXCEL programme was also recognised for the same category at the 18th edition of the Titans of Tech awards, held last year, further validating the interventions efficacy.
Declaring the award ceremony open, Femi Pedro, pioneer Banker and former Deputy Governor of Lagos, praised the organiser of the Titans of Tech Africa Award for its consistency over the years.
He noted that in recognising excellence, celebrating commitment and rewarding winners, the Titans of Tech Awards is contributing to efforts at building the nation’s telecommunications industry.
Don Pedro Aganbi, Convener of the Titans of Tech Awards in his welcome address noted that The Titans of Tech Awards is a platform dedicated to recognizing the achievements, successes, and triumphs of key stakeholders across the entire digital technology spectrum and telling the stories. He insisted that awards are a great way to encourage good behaviour, inculcate competitive spirit and spur the industry to greater heights.
In awarding the Most Innovative Digital Learning Platform of the Year Prize to EKOEXCEL, the organisers described EKOEXCEL as not just being at the forefront of Innovative digital learning but is also a leading e-learning provider and enabler with a history of consistency, innovation and passion for excellence with over 13,000 teachers retrained and migrated from analogue to digital teaching using the latest tech and updated curricular.
EKOEXCEL classrooms are rated excellent on two critical determinants of classroom culture: Supportive Learning Environment and Positive Behavioral Expectations among others
Receiving the award on behalf of Lagos Sate Universal Basic Education Board (LASUBEB) was, Hon. Bayo Adefuye, permanent board member LASUBEB, who also happens to be the chairman of EKOEXCEL.
During an interview at the event He said EKOEXCEL’s Journey started in 2019 by the working Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, domiciled in LASUBEB who are in charge of running the programme and have recorded giant strides in primary education and has raised the standards and the teachers are now digital teachers and has increased the learning output of our pupils.
“This is dedicated to Mr Governor for bringing this (programme) on board and we will continue to pursue excellence in child education and learning as and also the chairman, board members and staff of LASUBEB all working to make this work”
Last April, the Lagos State government, through EKOEXCEL launched a dedicated real-time monitoring control centre called the Situation Room that visualizes the flow of data – direct from the classroom to dashboards displaying it in real time from all 1013 primary schools under the program.
The state-of-the-art facility equipped with cutting-edge technology, is arguably the first in Nigeria for government owned schools.
Apart from enhancing transparency by allowing officials to see what is happening in every classroom and school in real-time, it also boosts the digital tracking of attendance, the percentage of lessons delivered daily, pupil assessment data and quality assurance data via a real-time dashboard and timely reports all provided by a software called Spotlight.
The Lagos state government, through EKOEXCEL, recently celebrated the incredible milestone of distributing over 300 million learning materials to all 1013 Lagos State public primary schools under the EKOEXCEL programme with close to a million children benefiting.
The intervention has dramatically improved pupil performances in literacy and numeracy evidenced in this years’ National Common Entrance Examinations where a pupil from a Lagos State public primary school has shone brightly by scoring 199 over 210 from the examination tracking done so far. Three pupils who also benefited from EKOEXCEL scored 198, 197 and 196 respectively over 210 in last year’s examinations.
Quality and equitable basic education is a major priority of Lagos State, under the THEMES agenda, evidenced by the investment in EKOEXCEL, a pivotal project designed to elevate the education trajectory of Lagos State by bringing equal opportunity to all children in the state, making education affordable for everyone.
EKOEXCEL is a fulfilment of Governor Sanwo-Olu’s commitment to education in his THEMES agenda.
This article appeared originally on Independent, July 26, 2023
