Children should be exposed to technology in school, says education expert

Adeyemi Adebayo, special education director, Lagos ministry of education, says children should be taught to use technology in schools.

Adebayo was the keynote speaker at a webinar on education and nation-building to mark the launch of the Association of Nigerian Educational Psychologists (ANEP).

He said the pandemic revealed Nigeria’s failure to invest in education which led to the locking up of schools without viable alternatives for learning. 

“The pandemic has shown Nigeria’s failure to invest in education. Although our children used online virtual classes, the question is — did  we prepare our teachers for that? Are our children aware that such will happen? did we notice that our teachers were grappling such that they couldn’t even figure out how to help the children,” he said.  

“People should understand the need for technology, it is inevitable, it’s something we cannot negotiate with. Our children should learn the use of technology right from the school and the school should also prepare them for that.

“As one psychologist said, if children don’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn. So it is high time teachers understood the psychology of this generation and adopt the methodology that works in terms of 21st-century learning.” 

He said children should learn soft skills like sewing and bead-making so that when they leave school and are unable to get a job, they can leverage their skills. 

Shola Aletan, an educational psychologist, said it is necessary to involve education psychologists in school systems because they help to understand how children learn, what motivates them to learn, and why they behave the way they do. 

He said this would help the children understand themselves and direct them into knowing what career to choose.

Also speaking Rema Kanj, an educational psychologist, said the pandemic exposed vulnerabilities and social gaps in education and this has made it necessary for countries to “leapfrog to more innovative, equitable sustainable modes of learning”.

“We need to strengthen the resilience of education systems for equitable and sustainable development and to suggest solutions to transform education in order to better cope with future crises,” she said.