REDLi Trains 200 Secondary School Students in Esit Eket on Digital Literacy

Ndifreke Enefiok, Uyo
At least 200 secondary school students in Esit Eket have benefitted from a digital literacy awareness workshop organised by the Rural Education and Digital Learning Initiative (REDLi) in an effort to address the digital divide in Nigeria.
The training, which aimed to address the challenges of digital exclusion, particularly for students in rural areas, where access to technology and digital knowledge is limited was organised in partnership with the Esit Eket Local Government Chairman, Mrs Uduak Ikot for students in Community Secondary School, Akpautong, on Friday, January 17, 2025.
The workshop which also introduced students to basic knowledge of computer appreciation, operations, internet navigation, typing, networking, online security and Artificial Intelligence is the REDLi’s first pilot programme in Akwa Ibom State.
Speaking shortly after the workshop, the Founder and Executive Director of REDLi, Miss Andikan Umoh explained that the workshop was born out of the need to create digital awareness, improve the learning outcomes of students by teaching them how to use computers beyond gaming and harness digital opportunities.
She revealed that from the outreach her organisation found out many students in the school, despite being familiar with computers, use it primarily for gaming and entertainment purposes instead of researching and other productive things that will impact their education positively.
She emphasised the importance of guiding students to use digital technology for more productive purposes, such as researching, and learning about career prospects, noting that digital awareness workshops have the potential of exposing students to other career options, including coding and artificial intelligence, beyond traditional fields like engineering, medicine and law.
Highlighting the challenges facing the digital space in Nigeria, Umoh noted that Africa and Nigeria is burdened with a dearth of digital technology inaccessibility due to gaps in infrastructure, connectivity and skills and this has created digital exclusion particularly for people and students at the rural areas.
“Our problems are on three scale, lack of digital computer itself, a lot of people in the rural areas don’t have access to digital computers and in a school like this, we’ve seen it that they don’t have computers at all and a computer teacher and because of that they can’t write computer in WAEC and it’s very unfortunate.”
She also pointed out that the high cost of data and poor network infrastructure are significant challenges further exacerbating digital exclusion and limited opportunities for rural communities.
According to her, “We also see that there’s a gap in infrastructure, cost of data and a quality networking system that allows people to stay connected. We see that a lot of people in these rural communities cannot access data because of the cost…how many households can feed and buy data? This is a gap.
“We have another problem with skills. We see that a lot of people don’t know how to use computers, even if they use computers, do they know how to use it for the right things?” She added.
Similarly, Umoh raised concerns about the safety of the equipment if provided for schools, stating that many schools lack proper perimeter fencing to protect property, security personnel and qualified computer teachers to sustain digital support programmes.
“By the time we say let’s come in and donate a standard computer lab and bring in a computer teacher, we’re afraid how long they will last because there are no security in place to secure it or perimeter fencing to protect the compound from vandals and that’s one things government needs to look into,’’ she said.
She however called on the state government and stakeholders to address infrastructural gaps, which are necessary to sustain investments in digital learning facilities.
“This is a call to stakeholders to come in and partner with us to help address the issue of digital divide and lack of infrastructure to take care of the numbers because we actually had the numbers but worked with limited computers to address that number. The amount of system we had is not enough to take care of the numbers and we cannot keep travelling with systems from Uyo to this village to teach them computers and this could be a threat. So, we’re happy and open to collaboration.”
Expressing gratitude, the Principal of the school, Mr Eyo Aweh thanked REDLi for organising the programme for students in his school, and improving their education.
He expressed satisfaction in the programme’s ability to impact positively in the lives of the students especially for those in SS3 who are preparing to sit for WAEC and JAMB.
Meanwhile, a cross-section of students who benefitted from the workshop including Queen Okon, Blessing Ndiong and Mary Sunday Eduok noted that the workshop has exposed them to better ways to use digital technology to learn and research on things that will contribute to their education.
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