MultiChoice Nigeria, the leading provider of premium pay-TV services on the DStv and GOtv platforms has extended its major Corporate Social Investment project in the education sector, the MultiChoice Resource Centre (MRC) initiative, which it started in 2004 to 10 additional public secondary schools in Bayelsa Sate.

The CSR initiative, which kicked-off in Abuja and Lagos State will avail students of 10 public schools in Bayelsa State access to world-class learning facilities.

The intervention comprises a TV set, a HD PVR decoder, satellite dish, a power generator, uninterrupted power system (UPS), a set of chairs and desks for the laboratory, in additional to training for teachers.

The MRC facilitates teaching and learning enhancement by enabling school children access educational TV channels that include: Education TV, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, BBC Knowledge, BBC World, History Channel, Animal Planet and Mindset Learn, at no cost.

The novel intervention which has been introduced to 274 schools in 27 states of the federation and proven to make critical impact on the knowledge levels and understanding especially of technical subject areas by students, is now within the reach of students of the public secondary schools in Bayelsa State, bringing the total to 284 in 28 states across the country, including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

A commemorative commissioning ceremony of the 10 new MRC in Bayelsa State held at Saint Jude’s Secondary School, Yenagoa, on Thursday, January 16.

The launch in Bayelsa is in furtherance of the ninth Phase of the MRC project, which include scheduled launches in other beneficiary schools in some select states to be announced by the company.

Salo Adikumo, commissioner for Education, Bayelsa State, represented by Durban Whyte, permanent secretary, Bayelsa State Ministry of Education, lauded MultiChoice Durban Whyte and its implementing partner, Innovative Technology Literacy Services Limited, for the initiative which she described as a veritable tool for the provision of valuable learning resource components for public schools across the country.

“The MultiChoice Resource Centre project, which provides valuable learning resource components for 10 selected public schools in the State of Bayelsa to support the government’s efforts especially at a time when the Chief Executive Officer of the State, His Excellency Governor Dickson Seriake is leading a restoration agenda following his declaration of a state of emergency in the education sector, is a welcome development,” he said.

“The launch in Yenagoa makes Bayelsa a proud and happy 28th beneficiary state in Nigeria from the laudable project funded by MultiChoice in several African countries. This partnership is to reaffirm the commitment of our administration to providing qualitative education to the entire students of the state and to sustain the high level of educational development attained through innovative project like the MRC. By this achievement, our students are guaranteed to be kept abreast of happening on the global scene through methodical teaching and learning introduced by the resource centre project,” Adikumo added.

Mr. John Ugbe, managing director, MultiChoice Nigeria, said: “The resource centre initiative is our corporate social investment project that has grown from only four centres at inception.”

He added that the technological, economic, socio-political advancement of any country has a direct correlation with its level of educational development and that the future of a country is intrinsically tied to the quality of education that the youths are exposed to, a belief which informs MultiChoice’s roll-out of the audio-visual learning aid across the country. He further said that MultiChoice plans to launch the resource centres in all the states of the federation.

“The MultiChoice Resource Centre project is our way of promoting the use of integrated and communication technologies to raise the standard of education by deploying the imagery of sight and sound to make learning more vivid and creative. To achieve these, we have partnered with the relevant educational stakeholders to integrate learning from the resource centres into the relevant school curriculum. This way, we are assured that television, which is a powerful communication tool, is also used as a potent education resource,” Ugbe stated.

Mrs Ronke Bello, managing director, Innovative Technology Literacy Services Ltd, said: “The MultiChoice resource centre is designed to grant beneficiary schools access to the special MultiChoice Education bouquet with the aim of integrating the programmes into their curriculum to further enhance the teaching and learning processes in classrooms.”

She added that MultiChoice, in conjunction with Innovative Technology Literacy Services also conducted a Teacher-Training programme for 50 selected teachers, five each from the 10 beneficiary schools. “The teachers were trained as Master-Trainers who would in turn train their colleagues on the use and integration of the special education bouquet into their learning environment. A MultiChoice Resource Centre Educator’s Guide has also been provided to guide the teachers and the schools on the use and maintenance of the facilities.”