The purpose of ICT in education is not only to familiarize students with the use and working of computer, and related social and ethical issues but also to enhance the capacity of teachers in learning processes. Teachers can use it to aid their teaching, while administrators can use them for day to day running and management of their institutions. Considering the need of ICTs for teachers in educational environment and the volumes of documents and communications which administrators are handling, computer skills have become necessary for them. Yet such staff and officers have no time to learn the computer in a conventional computer school given their commitment. As part of its effort to implement the ICT in Education policy of the State, the Jigawa State Ministry of Education, Science and Technology approached CITAD to design a training which requires minimum time on the part of the participants. CITAD developed a fast track module which is well tested and given to a number of other similar clients in Bauchi, Edo and Katsina States as well as the. The objectives of the training include:
¨    To introduce the participants on the use of ICTs for record keeping
¨    To develop the skills of the participants in the use of Excel for examination results computation
¨    To develop the competence of the participants in building simple database for student records
¨    Develop their Office Application skills
¨    Updated their skills on general knowledge of the use of ICTs in the learning environment
Training Content: The program covered the following modules:
¨    Advanced Ms-Word Skills
¨     Training Skills on Ms-Excel
¨     Training users on Ms-PowerPoint
¨    Access for database building
¨    Internet skills Development
The training commenced on 7th February, 2013 after an opening ceremony which was held at the Government Commercial Secondary School Dutse. The opening ceremony was attended by the Honorable commissioner Jigawa State Ministry of education Science and Technology; other signatories included Permanent Secretary of the MOEST Alhaji Hudu Abdullahi, Director Science M. Aliyu Ahmad Shungurun, Executive secretaries of both SUBEB and IEB Jigawa state, Executive Director CITAD Y. Z Ya’u, Malam Ahmad Abdullahi Training coordinator CITAD.
In his speech the Hon. Commissioner Professor Haruna Wakili addressed the gathering on the importance of the ICT training for examination and admission officers of secondary schools in Jigawa state, he noted that recently a workshop on ICT for principals of Secondary schools was conducted with the aim of training them on ICT skills and maintenance of ICT facilities, similarly the current training was in recognition of the role examination and admission officers are playing in the provision of educational services. He added that ICT was now globally accepted as a major tool in the educational activities at all level, it was in line with this the Ministry organized the training for the admission officers because of their enormous importance in schools management and administration which was part of the global call for ICT compliance in both academic and managerial activities. The commissioner said that the Jigawa state government was committed to the overall development of the educational sector, and that his ministry has provided computer sets, internet facilities, computer laboratories to almost 50% of the senior secondary schools and 8 computer training centers in the state. The ministry was also paying for the quarterly bandwidth subscription for schools and therefore he called on the participants and the general staff to reciprocate the government gesture by making the maximum use of the facilities and maintaining them for future generations.
The training was conducted at four different centers namely Dutse, Hadejia, Garki and Kazaure. Dutse and Hadejia centers’ training commenced on 28th January, 2013 with the 54 and 47 participants respectively and it was completed on 7th February 2013 while the Garki and Kazaure Centers commenced theirs on 11th February,2013 and completed on 21st February, 2013 with 44 and 17 participants respectively. A total of 167 participants attended the training.
The training consisted of five modules which delivered the modules accompanied by manuals, which are easy to use both during training and after training and it comprised five complimentary approaches which include, manual based instructions to deliver specific skills and hands on practices for participants to internalize the skills.
The training was very interactive and participatory, many experiences were shared especially on how to improve records keeping using ICT in schools, and participants expressed their satisfaction on the quality of the presentations/facilitations and prayed such a workshop to be continuous.
The participants in appreciation of the support and cooperation of the Ministry have constituted a communiqué committee at the Garki center, the communiqué released assessed the quality of the training conducted, the achievement, problems and recommendations. See attached copy of the communiqué