The Federal Government has announced plans to completely replace chalkboards with smart boards in all Nigerian schools by 2027, as part of efforts to modernise classroom learning and align with global education standards.
Minister of Education, Dr. Olatunji Alausa, disclosed this during a ministerial roundtable in Abuja, stating that the initiative is in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment to bridging the digital divide in the education sector.
According to him, technology-driven learning tools are already being introduced in classrooms nationwide. “We launched a smart board two weeks ago,” Alausa said. “By 2027, every school in Nigeria will have one. This is how we intend to deliver quality education to every child, regardless of location or social background.”
The minister explained that the smart boards will gradually replace traditional chalkboards, making teaching more interactive through the use of multimedia content, digital textbooks, and real-time learning tools.
Alausa also revealed that over 60,000 learning tablets have been distributed to pupils in Adamawa, Oyo, and Katsina States under the Airtech (Amazon Web Services) and BESDA programmes, with another 30,000 devices expected soon.
He added that starting from 2026, the annual school census will be fully digitalised to enable real-time tracking of educational data and outcomes.
Highlighting the growing concern over Nigeria’s rising dropout rates, the minister cited data from the digitised Nigeria Education Management Information System (NEMIS), which showed that millions of pupils are leaving school before reaching senior secondary level.
“The figures are alarming,” he said. “From 21 states that have uploaded their data, about 30 million children are enrolled in primary school. But by Junior Secondary 1, between 10 and 20 million are unaccounted for. From Junior to Senior Secondary, another four million disappear. That’s about 24 million children lost in transition.”
To address the problem, the Ministry of Education has begun uploading the biometric data of every pupil to improve monitoring, planning, and policy implementation. “It’s no longer a manual process,” Alausa noted. “We are removing paper completely. Soon, data from WAEC and JAMB will also be integrated into this digital system.”
He thanked UNICEF for its technical support and commended President Tinubu for championing the digital transformation agenda in education.
The Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr. Aisha Garba, affirmed that the commission has fully embraced technology in its operations and is working toward the complete digitalisation of public schools across the country.
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