By BESDA AF-TESS Reform Initiative
Teachers trained on tablet-based content delivery
Summary
- BESDA AF-TESS equips teachers with digital tools to enhance pedagogy and reduce out-of-school children
- Training held in Oyo, Katsina, and Adamawa aims to improve literacy and learning outcomes
- Universal Basic Education Commission leads programme with support from GPE and state governments
Abuja, Nigeria – The Nigerian government, in collaboration with the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), has launched a 3-day intensive teacher training programme under the Better Education Service Delivery for All Additional Financing – Transforming Education Systems at State Level (BESDA AF-TESS) initiative, a World Bank-supported, 4-year intervention which began in 2021. The training, held in select states including Katsina, Oyo, and Adamawa, is a major step towards reforming basic education by leveraging digital technology to improve teaching quality and student outcomes.
Organised by the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) alongside State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEBs) and the Federal Ministry of Education, the training targets state master trainers and school support officers. It focuses on equipping participants with the skills to use curated tablets preloaded with digitised curriculum-aligned teaching content across four core subjects. The initiative aims to ensure that teachers can effectively deliver lessons using structured pedagogy and engage students through interactive digital learning tools.
As part of the programme’s Disbursement Linked Indicator Area 2 (DLI-2), the training also covers the use of the Education Management Information System (EMIS) for data collection and introduces the monitoring and evaluation framework necessary for assessing progress. For instance, in Katsina, 85 master trainers were trained to cascade the knowledge and tools to other educators in the state. A similar training mission took place in Oyo State in March 2024, indicating the scale and reach of the initiative.
The BESDA AF-TESS project builds on the successes of the original BESDA programme and is designed to address three key result areas: reducing the number of out-of-school children, improving teaching practices, and strengthening transparency in education expenditure. Oyo, Katsina, and Adamawa (collectively referred to as the OAK states) were specifically selected for the programme, with Oyo being the only participating state from southern Nigeria.
The digitised tablets introduced during the training sessions are intended to improve lesson delivery and reduce reliance on physical textbooks. Their integration supports Nigeria’s broader digital learning agenda, in line with similar efforts such as the Nigeria Learning Passport (NLP), which offers offline modules for rural learners. However, past experiences, such as the Osun State tablet initiative in 2013, highlight the need for comprehensive training to mitigate challenges like poor connectivity and device misuse.
By strengthening teachers’ capacity and expanding access to digital learning tools, BESDA AF-TESS aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education) and tackles Nigeria’s long-standing education crisis. The country is currently grappling with over 10 million out-of-school children and widespread poor literacy and numeracy among primary school pupils.
The use of curated digital content, supported by well-structured training, is expected to significantly boost learning outcomes and help reintegrate more children into the school system. While the full impact of the programme will become clearer over time, stakeholders see this initiative as a crucial investment in the future of Nigeria’s education sector.
