Sokoto Moves to Fully Digitalise Basic and Secondary Education Within Two Years

The Sokoto State Government has announced plans to completely digitalise its basic and secondary education system within the next two years, aiming to enhance the quality of teaching, learning, and educational administration across the state.

This was disclosed by the state’s Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Prof. Ahmed Ala, during an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.

“We want to fully digitise the information system in basic and secondary education in Sokoto State,” Ala said. “This will help us to assess teachers’ and principals’ performance on key performance indicators, including teaching and regularity in classes. It will also help us to track how they carry out other functions and keep administrative records.”

According to Ala, the digitisation initiative—driven by the Education Management Information System (EMIS)—is already helping the government monitor school performance. Schools are currently ranked using a points-based system: those scoring 14 points and above are rated as “very good,” while those with six points or below are considered poor-performing.

The EMIS platform also serves as a repository for critical information on infrastructure, ICT, libraries, and other education-related data. “The digitisation will also provide ready information to development partners on our weaknesses and strengths. This will help in planning, execution, and policy implementation,” he added.

Complementing EMIS is the Teachers Management Information System (TMIS), which will specifically track and support the professional development of academic staff.

In a bid to raise teaching standards, Prof. Ala highlighted the state’s ongoing teacher training efforts. “We are also radically and vigorously undertaking teacher training because we found out that so many teachers do not have the necessary knowledge, skills, experience, and competence to teach in secondary schools. So far, we have done two sets of training, and we have been able to train 2,500 teachers,” he said.

The digital transformation and capacity-building efforts reflect the state government’s broader commitment to creating a more effective, accountable, and inclusive education system.