The Open Foundation West Africa (OFWA) has inaugurated a Kiwix4School app in Federal Government Boys College (FGBC), Wuye, Abuja, to address the students’ challenges in accessing internet-based curricular resources.
The Assistant Director, Federal Ministry of Education, Ms Obiageli Ezeilo, while inaugurating the app on Thursday, said that the project is being implemented by OFWA under the Wikimedia Foundation.
According to Ezeilo, who is also a Kiwix ambassador, the aim of the project is to provide students with the opportunity to access available educational information.
“KIWIX serves as a complementary service to education by providing offline educational materials.
“The Kiwix app being introduced in FGBC today will help in revolutionizing education. It will solve the problem of internet connectivity we experience in Africa and Nigeria.
“We have this problem of internet connectivity, or low internet or no internet connectivity at all. So with this app, those challenges would be solved.
“Educational contents would be downloaded in the school’s system and this will also serve as a control measure because students will not be having unnecessary interference from the internet.
“It is also going to cut costs because instead of buying data all the time, you don’t need to spend that money anymore,” he reiterated.
Ezeilo also noted that FGBC was the pilot test for the Kiwix4School project, while other schools would be brought on-board with time.
She added that the app would not only be beneficial to students but to teachers as well.
Also, Mrs Marian Ifejika-Tor, Assistant Director, Federal Ministry of Education, serving in FGBC Wuye, opined that the app would help students learn faster, especially in assessing information or resource materials.
“Whenever you give them assignments, they can easily go to the school’s media lab to get access to the information.
“This new development is great because it is starting with the children to catch them young and they will in turn, sell the idea to their parents.
