With digital processes and automation driving the new world order across different sectors of social economic endeavors, managers of the education sector which serves as the bedrock for other industries are beginning to seek ways to reposition for improved service delivery and administration. This explains why the Federal Capital Territory Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) is reviewing its holistic processes for improved efficiency to meet the yearnings of the Nigerian public.
As part of measures aimed at achieving this feat, the FCT UBEB has held a One Day Programme to assess its strategies at improving the digitization process of the school system in the nation’s capital. The event which was facilitated by the FCT UBEB technical partner Plovtech Solutions was aimed at evaluating the deployment of all the different processes put in place to enable all stakeholders to enjoy better services from students to parents and the school’s management board and the government as a whole.
The Project Managers Plovtech Solutions having developed very robust platforms for about a decade of a long-standing relationship with FCT UBEB said they have been able to ease the burden of the Board’s administrative bottlenecks with a very comprehensive Six-in-One Smart eRecords Card, which contains the records of over twenty-one million students of all Junior Secondary Schools across the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The portal enables the school’s ecosystem players to be able to assess admission and other relevant information of students and the school’s records from anywhere across the globe.
Some of the automated records are; eResults Term Sheets, eResults Cumulative Sheets, eAttendance IN and Out, eRecords Cummulative of Cumulative, eTestimonial. According to Plovtech Solutions, the bigger idea with the current eSolution in the near future is to be able to fully deliver eLearning platform, eRegistry System, eDepartment and eExamination platforms.
The Acting Chairman of Federal Capital Territory Universal Basic Education Board, Dr. Alhassan Sule says the vision of the Board is to fully adopt a digitized sustainable system which will enable them keep abreast with best global practices thereby positioning the Board as a pacesetter amongst others throughout the nation. “Our aim is to ensure we compete favorably as far as global dynamics are concerned. The FCT UBEB being the centre of governance, we want to see that other states emulate our leading role because the advantages offered by digitization of our school’s systems are very numerous” he stated. According to him such benefits include monitoring, planning, reduction in cost of administration, quick and seamless access to information at one’s fingertips.
A Deputy Director Dr. Safiya Tamanuwa of the FCT UBE Board, Junior Secondary School Department who is the Chairman of the Technical Committee commended the efforts of Plovtech Solutions for their expertise and management of the UBEB central schools’ portal. She noted that before the coming of the Technical Partners, the system of processing admissions which was manual was very hectic and cumbersome. “With the introduction of digitization, life has become easier for everyone, the human inefficiencies have been significantly reduced and with automation, verification of students’ information and processing has become stress-free,” she noted.
On the robustness of the platform, Pius Bakare of Plovtech Solutions highlighted the gains and achievements over the past nine years of engagement with FCT UBEB. He noted that the era of long queues in search of students’ admissions, inefficient manual processing, difficult records keeping, and chaotic challenges with obtaining and authenticating of documents have all become a thing of the past.
Importantly, Bakare pointed out that over sixty-five thousand admissions are now processed annually through the electronic De-Centralised Direct Processing portal which is managed by respective Local Education Authorities (LEA). “We believe that the system today is very beneficial to the students, parents, the teachers and UBEB that manages the schools” he enthused.
He praised the foresight of UBEB Management for deciding to work with Plovtech while adding that the organization is very much aware of cyber security challenges hence, they regularly put in place measures to avert possible breaches of the platforms. “We have also undertaken periodic training to ensure capacity building for teachers, UBEB officials and we have been working closely with the Technical Committee Team so much so that after undergoing training from us they in turn now train other staff and stakeholders”, he added.