By Adesina Wahab

The Office of Education Quality Assurance (OEQA), Lagos State Ministry of Education, is sharing the successful results of the OEQA Pilot Literacy Innovation Programme using L’explore Technology to boost the literacy levels of young students who have reading challenges.

The Director-General, Office of Education Quality Assurance, Mrs Abiola Seriki-Ayeni, has therefore reaffirmed Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu’s decision to make Lagos State a 21st Century technology hub as it aligns with the education sector.

According to her, “400 students at the primary 3 level from 6 public and private schools have participated in the pilot scheme of this laudable initiative. The pilot scheme, which took place last month, was conducted by the OEQA and Mirai Partners using the  L’explore application.

“A complete assessment involves the use of artificial intelligence through an eye tracker, and a computer to record student eye movements.”

She further stated that this initiative would offer not only valuable insights into the complex cognitive and linguistic processes behind reading but also state-wide literacy levels. 

“Using the latest AI in eye-tracking technology to measure when, where, and how children’s eyes move in relation to the words they are reading, we can detect minor differences in the way the brain processes text. The data is analyzed using artificial intelligence in a secure cloud-based platform.

It achieves more accuracy compared to currently used tests that take much longer time and requires far more resources,” she said.

Mrs Christine Nasserghodsi, the Managing Partner of MIRAI Partners, in her remarks, emphasized the importance of this initiative toward data gathering, analysis and recommendations.

“Children’s reading levels have the potential to skyrocket in a matter of months; and this is transformative during the era of learning loss as a result of Covid-19,” she stated.