To further build upon its impacts, improve its processes and ensure that head teachers and teachers maintain the highest possible standards in giving their best to pupils, the Lagos State Universal Basic Education Board’s (LASUBEB) has introduced the Let’s Mark App for the 2022/2023 term two end of term examinations for the EKOEXCEL programme.
Let’s Mark is one of the many digital applications introduced in the EKOEXCEL programme.
Commenting on the App’s benefits, LASUBEB Chairman, Honourable Wahab Alawiye-King, explained that the introduction of the App has further positioned Lagos State public primary schools as a leader in transformative public education reform in Nigeria through the use of technology, thereby enabling widespread acceptance of EKOEXCEL among ALL stakeholders within the Lagos State political class including the end users of the programme.
He said “The app allows teachers to quickly and accurately mark multiple choice exams using the school leader smartphone. The teacher uses the app to ‘scan’ the answer sheet. The app, in turn, automatically marks all responses and identifies incorrect responses. The teacher then marks the incorrect answers on the paper.”
“The app also uploads all item-level data to remote servers. Let’s Mark can also be used with thermal printers. Thermal printers are small battery-powered printers that print the results of an exam for each individual student. The printout includes the student details, the answers to all questions the student answered incorrectly, and a QR code that links to either the exam PDF or to the mobile quizzing platform.”
The App was introduced as a pilot phase to 200 select Lagos state public primary schools prior to the end of term examinations, where the teachers underwent a week long capacity building exercise on how to use the App, facilitated by LASUBEB’s BEQA Mentoring Field Officers.
Furthermore, as part of the pilot phase, the Let’s Mark is only applicable to Supplementary Maths (Numeracy Levels C-E) exams. Other syllabus subjects will be introduced in the near future.
Speaking on the use of the App, during the end of term two examinations, Mrs. Francisca Okafo, Head Teacher of Federal Housing Estate Primary School Victoria Island Lagos commended the introduction of the Let’s Mark App.
She said, “The Let’s Mark App is a very commendable one, it will ease the stress of going through exam scripts to mark one after the other. Though it took us some time to understand the conditions to accurately scan the exam scripts but as we got through, the process went smoothly. So I want to encourage that the Let’s Mark App is introduced to all Lagos State public primary schools in marking examinations.”
Also commenting on the introduction of the App was Mr. Bakare Yusuf, a basic 4 teacher at Ansar-Ud-Deen primary school, Victoria island Lagos, who said “with the introduction of technology, I believe it makes the teachers job very much easier, you scan and it automatically brings out the result and score for you. There is no need to bring out your biro to mark severally and that takes all of your time.
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 fulfillment of Governor Sanwo-Olu’s commitment to education in his THEMES agenda.
Through EKOEXCEL, the Lagos State Government has developed a globally recognised, award winning public education intervention, designed to equip and support public school teachers with technology driven tools and methodology, to aid increased learning gains in classrooms.
This article appeared originally on Daily Independent, Apr 3, 2023
