By ADERONKE KUJORE

We are now in a new era. Gone are the days when the only way to acquire knowledge was moving from ones home to distant schools just to attain an education. This knowledge age is successfully making education available in every home across the globe at reasonable costs and it’s time for Nigeria to take full advantage of it before it’s too late.

Back in the day, parents across the country would send their children to what they considered the best government secondary schools. One would see girls from Sokoto State enrolling in Queens College in Lagos State just to get that premium education and the best teachers.

Similarly, with religious education, parents would pack bags for their children and send them several states away for that rare opportunity to be tutored by the most respected Imams in several Tsangaya or Islamic schools in Northern Nigeria.

Even at the post secondary levels, parents would send their children to America, Europe, and other countries around the world so that they could receive prestigious degrees from schools like Harvard, Yale, Oxford and Cambridge. Did you know that there was even a time that other Africans would travel to Nigeria to attend University of Ibadan and Amadu Bello University? It was a thing and there are so many proud alumnus of Nigerian Universities across the globe.

What is important now is that those days are gone. And it is time we catchup with this digital knowledge age. With the settling of technology, parents and students no longer need to travel far for a basic, secondary or vocational education. A lot can be achieved through digital media and the old culture of cramming knowledge is no longer necessary.

With the advent of Learning Management Systems, LMS, parents can now offer their children a full fledged K-12 education from the comfort of their homes and they can get the same or even a better education than most Nigerians are receiving today at schools from the comfort of their homes.

Similarly with the advent of Artificial Intelligence, AI, all questions that our children may have previously needed to ask their teachers can now be answered through applications like ChatGPT using a simple mobile device in the comfort of their homes.

“With the settling of technology, parents and students no longer need to travel far for a basic, secondary or vocational education. A lot can be achieved through digital media and the old culture of cramming knowledge is no longer necessary”

If you are worried about practicals, you must remember that there is nothing that is used in schools that are not bought from local markets. With youtube videos and a little yard space, there’s absolutely no practical offered through schools that cannot be done at home. We merely recommend a little adult supervision.

Yes, yes, yes, many may be wondering about costs. Even the cost story has been solved. Today, in many states, even the free basic education is not free. Parents are being forced to pay hidden registration, PTA, and other fees for enrollment. In a family of 4 children, these fees could be much even without thinking about transportation, uniform, textbooks, and other required costs. When compared to the basic cost of licensing LMS systems in Nigeria, DIGITAL EDUCATION WINS! Parents can educate all their children with just one licensed account of about 2000 naira per month while receiving a complete primary and secondary education from the comfort of their homes. For questions to be answered using AI, Google is free and rather strong these days and YouTube is is obviously free for practicals. The only things that might be missing are the sports and other social interactions for which I’m sure no Nigerian family needs me to proffer solutions.

If the education is available and the cost is low, why is this article even necessary? Why have people not taken advantage of this? I will tell you:

The main reason why parents or families have not taken advantage of this is two fold.

1. There is still limited knowledge regarding the power of technology to deliver comprehensive education as we are familiar with it.

2. Unlike the U.S. and other countries, government is yet to approve its efficacy as an alternative to brick and mortar schools.

This being said, with about 20 million out of school children and roughly 30 million Almajiris roaming the streets, it is critically important that the Nigerian government looks into this now. Our high birth rates, lack of sufficient school buildings and qualified teachers, and this growth in terrorism or insecurity demands that we seriously consider technology as a solution to the education problem.

• Dr. Kujore, a technology consultant and an education advocate, wrote via: [email protected]