6 ms·

Schools in Nigeria lack the curriculum to expose children to digital skills

41 points by iafrikan 6y ago

axegon_ 6y ago
> both the teens and these adults lack the skills and literacy needed to navigate potential risks. I'd argue that this is common across the globe, not limited to Nigeria. Very few people bother to take the time to understand the implications and the true dangers of the internet are. Even till this day, I'm pretty sure that most people think "oreo" when they see the cookies banners... If anything, I'd argue children are more likely to know the difference. And there are the limited cases where some children surprise with how well they are aware of what is going on, at least on a fundamental level. Deep down, very limited number of people can tell, the rabbit hole has become ridiculously big.
- Kednicma 6y ago
  I think that looking at Nigeria is instructive precisely because it is so ordinary among developing nations, while still being massive. Nigeria's biggest asset is probably its population, and since Nigeria is one of the most-populated parts of Africa, education is very important for keeping society on its path. At the same time, any lessons learned about improving education in Nigeria can be brought to the rest of Africa and the world.
blunte 6y ago
This is written from the assumptions that digital skills are a primary concern, and that such skills need guidance and leadership to develop. I think neither of those concerns are valid. Teaching fundamental skills, especially from a holistic approach (not where math, physics, history, etc. are taught in isolation), is vastly more important. With that foundational knowledge, children can reason and learn more on their own. This is when basic guidance regarding digital skills can be offered. Once a broad platform of knowledge and ability to think is established, children (and adults) can learn the technical skills easily. If you approach this education in reverse, people learn how to do a few specific things without being able to think independently about what they are doing or why they are doing it. They will certainly have the motivation to learn on their own.
- watwut 6y ago
  No, kids dont learn work related bits of technical skills by themselves. They wont learn about file structure, basic maintenance, how to write documents nor how to copy them. With no guidance and at least hints about what is possible, they are basically how old people used to be - clueless and helpless. They then tend to see themselves as "non-technical" as opposed to "technical" and don't try.
  - TulliusCicero 6y ago
    Yeah, I think a lot of people here assume you can "just pick up" those skills, because they themselves did that. But most of HN's userbase are technically inclined to begin with -- they're interested in tech stuff and pick it up relatively easily. Most people aren't like that, they're not going to pick up tech literacy beyond the level of using a browser/email any more easily than they'd "just pick up" trigonometry on their own.
    - watwut 6y ago
      Very frankly, most people who think they "just picked up" things up did not picked things those things up from nothing. They were in environment that provided enough information and idea about there are things to be picked up from. That is guidance. And looking at kids now, there is pretty often one kid who is shown basics by parent or video who then show part of those basics to other kids - when it comes to things they are interested in like minecraft. Then they bootstrap, but this is not like the first kid would divine minecraft servers exists. There was that information somewhere. Same applies to useful skills, except they are less likely to find fun stuff about writing documents or filesystem.
      - pbhjpbhj 6y ago
        [Caution, pointless reminiscence.] >Very frankly, most people who think they "just picked up" things up did not picked things those things up from nothing. // Yeah, not from nothing, but sometimes from not a lot. I'm middle aged, when I learnt some programming I didn't [knowingly] know anyone who could program. My parents knew how to put the cassette in and load a program; the teachers at school didn't even know how to switch the thing on (or pretended not to?). The computer came with a manual and from that you could work out how to list programs and try changing them, some example listings were given to type in. High-school age my mum bought home a computer (orange screen and big turbo button; Win3 I think) as she was volunteer librarian at the school; eventually I found Qbasic on it and it had 3/4 example programs that I gleaned enough from to make a fractal drawing. I spent quite a lot of time at a command line thinking of things to try writing instead of "win" which loaded up MSWindows - most Basic I knew didn't do anything in DOS to my recollection! All text interfaces should always respond to "help"!! Wasn't until Uni that I found out there was such a thing as computer science. I mean I'd seen War Games by then and dreamt of having an audio-coupler for several years. I think I thought everyone just used computers if they could; like the guys who programmed spacecraft were just the people who made it. A little guidance at those early stages would have gone a long way I feel; but I'm sure some managed to grok gorilla.bas, or their equivalent, and bootstrap themselves in to full-on programming. Anyway, get off my lawn ...
Nextgrid 6y ago
If you look at the digital "skills" of teenagers in Europe or the US you'll notice that this problem is not limited to Nigeria.
vezycash 6y ago
In Nigeria, computer as a subject is being taught at all levels - primary, secondary, and University. For seniors in secondary schools it's called data processing. Both Computer studies and data processing however, are mainly theory to be memorized. The end result is graduates who struggle with basic computing tasks - after taking 10+ years of computer classes. Even for computer science students in universities, this theory only approach changes only slightly. 80% of the semester in programming courses is spent in classes receiving lectures with the last three weeks in the computer lab. As for self learning via videos, it's challenging. Nigeria's minimum wage is below $100. Teachers in private schools (university graduates), mostly earn below $100 - NGN 38,750 (GOOGLE) monthly. Back to video learning, wired internet is non-existent. It's all wireless - so no unlimited internet. 50GB monthly data plan from Nigeria's cheapest data provider GLO costs 10 thousand naira. Relatively cheap comparing absolute dollar amount. 10,000 naira is however 33% of Nigeria's minimum wage of 30,000 naira.
Colorblinds 6y ago
Effective teaching of digital skills and issues surrounding the digital life must be prioritised. That's valid for many countries, not just Nigeria.

41 points by iafrikan 6y ago

> both the teens and these adults lack the skills and literacy needed to navigate potential risks. I'd argue that this is common across the globe, not limited to Nigeria. Very few people bother to take the time to understand the implications and the true dangers of the internet are. Even till this day, I'm pretty sure that most people think "oreo" when they see the cookies banners... If anything, I'd argue children are more likely to know the difference. And there are the limited cases where some children surprise with how well they are aware of what is going on, at least on a fundamental level. Deep down, very limited number of people can tell, the rabbit hole has become ridiculously big.

Kednicma 6y ago
I think that looking at Nigeria is instructive precisely because it is so ordinary among developing nations, while still being massive. Nigeria's biggest asset is probably its population, and since Nigeria is one of the most-populated parts of Africa, education is very important for keeping society on its path. At the same time, any lessons learned about improving education in Nigeria can be brought to the rest of Africa and the world.

blunte 6y ago

This is written from the assumptions that digital skills are a primary concern, and that such skills need guidance and leadership to develop. I think neither of those concerns are valid. Teaching fundamental skills, especially from a holistic approach (not where math, physics, history, etc. are taught in isolation), is vastly more important. With that foundational knowledge, children can reason and learn more on their own. This is when basic guidance regarding digital skills can be offered. Once a broad platform of knowledge and ability to think is established, children (and adults) can learn the technical skills easily. If you approach this education in reverse, people learn how to do a few specific things without being able to think independently about what they are doing or why they are doing it. They will certainly have the motivation to learn on their own.

watwut 6y ago
No, kids dont learn work related bits of technical skills by themselves. They wont learn about file structure, basic maintenance, how to write documents nor how to copy them. With no guidance and at least hints about what is possible, they are basically how old people used to be - clueless and helpless. They then tend to see themselves as "non-technical" as opposed to "technical" and don't try.
- TulliusCicero 6y ago
  Yeah, I think a lot of people here assume you can "just pick up" those skills, because they themselves did that. But most of HN's userbase are technically inclined to begin with -- they're interested in tech stuff and pick it up relatively easily. Most people aren't like that, they're not going to pick up tech literacy beyond the level of using a browser/email any more easily than they'd "just pick up" trigonometry on their own.
  - watwut 6y ago
    Very frankly, most people who think they "just picked up" things up did not picked things those things up from nothing. They were in environment that provided enough information and idea about there are things to be picked up from. That is guidance. And looking at kids now, there is pretty often one kid who is shown basics by parent or video who then show part of those basics to other kids - when it comes to things they are interested in like minecraft. Then they bootstrap, but this is not like the first kid would divine minecraft servers exists. There was that information somewhere. Same applies to useful skills, except they are less likely to find fun stuff about writing documents or filesystem.
    - pbhjpbhj 6y ago
      [Caution, pointless reminiscence.] >Very frankly, most people who think they "just picked up" things up did not picked things those things up from nothing. // Yeah, not from nothing, but sometimes from not a lot. I'm middle aged, when I learnt some programming I didn't [knowingly] know anyone who could program. My parents knew how to put the cassette in and load a program; the teachers at school didn't even know how to switch the thing on (or pretended not to?). The computer came with a manual and from that you could work out how to list programs and try changing them, some example listings were given to type in. High-school age my mum bought home a computer (orange screen and big turbo button; Win3 I think) as she was volunteer librarian at the school; eventually I found Qbasic on it and it had 3/4 example programs that I gleaned enough from to make a fractal drawing. I spent quite a lot of time at a command line thinking of things to try writing instead of "win" which loaded up MSWindows - most Basic I knew didn't do anything in DOS to my recollection! All text interfaces should always respond to "help"!! Wasn't until Uni that I found out there was such a thing as computer science. I mean I'd seen War Games by then and dreamt of having an audio-coupler for several years. I think I thought everyone just used computers if they could; like the guys who programmed spacecraft were just the people who made it. A little guidance at those early stages would have gone a long way I feel; but I'm sure some managed to grok gorilla.bas, or their equivalent, and bootstrap themselves in to full-on programming. Anyway, get off my lawn ...

Nextgrid 6y ago

If you look at the digital "skills" of teenagers in Europe or the US you'll notice that this problem is not limited to Nigeria.

vezycash 6y ago

In Nigeria, computer as a subject is being taught at all levels - primary, secondary, and University. For seniors in secondary schools it's called data processing. Both Computer studies and data processing however, are mainly theory to be memorized. The end result is graduates who struggle with basic computing tasks - after taking 10+ years of computer classes. Even for computer science students in universities, this theory only approach changes only slightly. 80% of the semester in programming courses is spent in classes receiving lectures with the last three weeks in the computer lab. As for self learning via videos, it's challenging. Nigeria's minimum wage is below $100. Teachers in private schools (university graduates), mostly earn below $100 - NGN 38,750 (GOOGLE) monthly. Back to video learning, wired internet is non-existent. It's all wireless - so no unlimited internet. 50GB monthly data plan from Nigeria's cheapest data provider GLO costs 10 thousand naira. Relatively cheap comparing absolute dollar amount. 10,000 naira is however 33% of Nigeria's minimum wage of 30,000 naira.

Colorblinds 6y ago

Effective teaching of digital skills and issues surrounding the digital life must be prioritised. That's valid for many countries, not just Nigeria.