UBEC launches digital server for basic education quality assurance

The federal government has launched an electronic quality assurance system for basic education in Nigeria.

The platform, called the Federal Education Quality Assurance Service Cloud Server (FEQAS Collect), was unveiled in Abuja on Thursday.

Yusuf Sununu, minister of state for education, spoke at the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) digital resource centre.

He said the system is designed to streamline the collection, analysis, and reporting of data related to the quality of education in schools.

The minister said the cloud server would essentially automate the Federal Education Quality Assurance Service Department.

He said the server would better equip the education ministry to monitor, evaluate, and improve education quality assurance processes.

Sununu, represented by the director of ICT Abubakar Isa, said the server would revolutionise the operation of the FEQAS department.

He said it would enhance data capturing, streamline processes for efficiency, boost efficient reporting, and fortify data protection.

Hamid Bobboyi, the executive secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), said the manual conduct of school quality assurance evaluation and reporting has been fraught with delay and human errors, hence the need to automate the system.

He said UBEC adopted digital technology for school quality assurance evaluation to promote flexibility, accuracy, and timely reporting.

The executive secretary said the technical support the commission received from the National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) led to the development of “UBEC Collect” which is currently being used by Quality Assurance Officers in the Commission.

He said UBEC Collect is also used by State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) and Local Government Education Authorities (LGEAS).

“The impact of the technological intervention in our school quality assurance evaluation encouraged us to extend the facility to the Federal Quality Assurance Services (FEQAS) in the overall interest of educational development in the country,” he stated.

Helen Okoro, the UBEC quality assurance director, said that the launch of the Federal Education Quality Assurance Services (FEQAS) and the UBEC Quality Assurance Officers (QAOs) guarantees a unity of purpose in school monitoring and evaluation of schools.

“The use of the digital tablet in conducting school evaluation is meant to simplify the work of the field officers so that all areas of whole school evaluation are effectively covered without difficulties,” she added.