The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq flagged off the project at the Federal Government College, Maiduguri, Borno State, explained that the STEM Centre will be established in five other locations across the State.

According to the Minister, a total of 218 of such schools located all over the 36 States and FCT are equipped with modern digital equipment in each centre including 25 All-In-One-Desktop PC 24-inch Screen Intel 2.8 GHz quad-core; 25 Desktop tables and Chairs, 1 Projector of 5000 lumens; 1 magnetic whiteboard for learning; 1 WiFi Routers multi-SIM and 18 Elegoo Robotics sets.

She explained that the Centre, which is one of the components of the National Social Investment Programme is a project strategically conceived to provide technical platforms that will aid modern teaching and learning on Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics to students in some carefully selected Federal and State-owned Science/Technical Secondary Schools nationwide.

Technically, the project aims at providing e-Learning facilities through the establishment of a State-of-the-Art Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure and modern teaching content, to serve as a one-stop-shop environment for students in public Secondary Schools, to have access to digital and updated learning materials in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics while also developing their ICT skills including the use of the Internet for various purposes.

STEM project has two components, the set-up of the centres in carefully selected government-owned secondary schools and the training of the teachers in the schools so selected.

While STEM centres are established to give students of secondary school an opportunity to have practical experience in digital learning platforms, the training component focuses on building the capacity of teachers in secondary schools to significantly enhance the learning of STEM which is the foundation of the digital economy. The programme is designed to equip and transform STEM teachers to deliver digital literacy through training, mentoring and provision of devices to aid teaching.”

The Minister who charged the teachers and students to take optimum advantage of the facility observed that the newly established Centre was set up, “where students can go in and learn about Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. We hope that the centre will be put to good use so that our children can benefit from this Centre.”

The Minister toured the facility accompanied by the Minister of State for Education Mr Emeka Nwajiuba, Mrs Imam Suleiman-Ibrahim, Director-General of the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, Director Humanitarian Affairs in the Ministry Alhaji Ali Grema, the State Focal Person, Hajiya Aisha Waziri Umar and other dignitaries.