 |
| John Ugbe, MD MultiChoice Nigeria |
MultiChoice Nigeria, the nation’s leading pay television destination, has announced plans to roll out more MultiChoice Resource Center (MRC) in public schools across the country. The center, which is an audio-visual teaching and learning aid for teachers and students in Secondary Schools is a Corporate Social Initiative (CSI) of MultiChoice Nigeria in partnership with MultiChoice Africa aimed at empowering teachers and students with skills in information and communication technologies (ICTs).
The MRC project is designed for beneficiary public schools to have access to MultiChoice Education Bouquet with a view of integrating the programmes into their curriculum in order to enhance the teaching and learning processes in their schools and with over seven channels on the bouquet, teachers and students have attested that the facility has made learning and teaching easy.
This year, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Ondo and Benue States to mention but a few are some of the States that will benefit from the launch of the resource centers. But prior to these launches, it is pertinent to note that the center has been successfully implemented in 201 schools in 21 States in the country and in each center, MultiChoice provides the following learning aid items to each of the beneficiary schools; one DStv decoder, one television, one DVD player, burglary proof for the equipment, education bouquet others include; one small generator, one whiteboard, 50 blank Video Cassettes, one stabilizer, one metal filing cabinet among others.
The MRC project does not end with the installation of the facility in the schools. MultiChoice takes the project a step further by training teachers who man the facility. In September 2011, MultiChoice Nigeria in collaboration with SchoolNet Nigeria organized a- three day training workshop for over 25 teachers from Nigeria and a Sierra Leonean teacher, Mr. Albert Kamara on the use of the MultiChoice Resource Center in classroom teaching/ learning at Ansar-ud-een Girls College, Iteri, Surulere, Lagos State.
Since the commencement of the MRC in 2004, MultiChoice has proudly trained over five thousand teachers across the country on the use of the learning aid and in an effort to reward outstanding teachers who have shown excellence and excelled in the use of the facility, MultiChoice in 2005 instituted MultiChoice Creative Teachers Awards. The second edition of the awards was held on Thursday 26 May, 2011 at 3Js Hotel, Abuja and Mr. Olalekan Adeeko; a Secondary School Teacher with Baptist High School, Abeokuta, Ogun State emerged winner. While Mrs. Hadiza Audu; a teacher with Ahmadu Bahago Secondary School, Minna, Niger State who focused her presentation on volcanic eruption emerged second at the Awards and Mrs. Onwumere Godgift Ezinwanne; a Social Studies teacher with Girls Secondary Junior School, Olokoro, Umuahia, Abia State emerged third as she used the audio-visual learning aid to focus on marriage and the types of marriages in Nigeria.
Since inception of the MRC project in Nigeria, MultiChoice Nigeria has spent over N150 million in training of teachers alone. Yet, the management of the company is still determined in ensuring that more students and teachers benefit from the initiative and the company have started to see the benefit of their commitment when in 2011 Master Chukwuka Ekweani of Zamani College, Kaduna emerged the winner in the essay category of the DStv Eutelsat Star Awards in Nigeria and came fourth at the continental level. Last year, Miss Imoh Daniel of Day Secondary School; a beneficiary of the MRC, emerged winner of the poster category in Nigeria, while at the continental level she emerged third.
Speaking about the MultiChoice Resource Center project, Mr. John Ugbe, Managing Director MultiChoice Nigeria said beneficiary schools of the resource center project have access to the special MultiChoice Education Bouquet. “We have instructional channels such as Discovery, National Geographic, BBC Knowledge, BBC World, History Channel, Animal Planet and Mindset Learn at no cost to the schools” he commented.
