The Executive Secretary of the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Aisha Garba, said data has shown that less than 50 percent of public primary schools in Nigeria have digital technology.

Garba stated this on Monday in Abuja during a media briefing ahead of the 2025 International Conference on Smart Education and Digital Literacy (ICSE 2025), jointly organised by the Commission and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).

Garba, who emphasised the need to equip basic schools with the infrastructure necessary for a smart education system, announced plans for a comprehensive deployment of technology to transform basic education delivery across Nigeria.

“Whether a child is in the rural area, semi-urban or urban area, there’s a technology appropriate to be applied to that context that will enable the child to read and write. In addition to what the child can get, for us, a very key activity is the teacher,” Garba added.

According to Garba, the event is aimed at repositioning Nigeria to align with some other African nations in integrating technology into education.

“For example, Rwanda has been using technology in the basic education system for many years. They have reached a level of using AI in their classrooms. For us in Nigeria, we have already started by doing the smart schools, which already many of you are aware of.

“We have about 36 plus one in each of all the states that we have in the country. These smart schools are very advanced technology with content studio teachers that are already skilled in terms of technology, teaching and learning in the classroom,” she said.

KOICA Country Director, Kim Eunsub, emphasised South Korea’s support for Nigeria’s smart education journey through the KOICA Smart School Initiative in collaboration with UBEC.

He noted that the initiative had already facilitated the construction of state-of-the-art smart schools, the training of teachers and administrators, and the sharing of learning resources.

While describing the upcoming conference as a platform to deepen collaboration and build on the progress of the initiative, Kim revealed plans for a second phase of the project to begin in 2026.

Earlier, Deputy Executive Secretary (Technical) of UBEC, Rasaq Akinyemi Olajuwon, explained that the conference seeks to expand equitable access to quality basic education through inclusive, technology-driven initiatives; improve teaching and learning by promoting digital pedagogy; and foster innovative curriculum design and 21st-century skills development, among others.

“We are delighted to have 26 distinguished dignitaries, 144 teachers from across Nigeria, and 30 delegates from various African countries joining us,” he said.

The three-day conference, scheduled for May 6–9 in Abuja, has its theme as ‘Empowering African Smart Education Through Emerging Technologies.’