FG, AIT sign MoU on educational broadcasting

MARCH 7, 2013 BY EVEREST AMAEFULE, ABUJA 4 COMMENTS

The Federal Government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Daar Communications Limited, owners of African Independent Television, to address mass failure in secondary school examinations through quality educational broadcasting.

The Managing Director, DaarSat Limited, the satellite broadcasting arm of the conglomerate, Dr. Don Pedro Obaseki, said this while announcing the return of the satellite broadcast services at a press conference in Abuja on Wednesday.

He regretted that Nigerian children were no longer doing well in competitive examinations such as the Unified Tertiary Metrication Examination and West African School Certificate Examination, and pledged that educational broadcasting would address the problem.

Obaseki, who addressed the press in company with the Managing Director, Daar Educational Services Limited, Mr. Raymond Dokpesi Jr., also said the company was working with the Teachers Media International, a United Kingdom outfit, on the provision of content.

The involvement of the Federal Government on the project will enable the media conglomerate access some funding from international donor agencies and also bring on board agencies such as the National Education Research Development Council.

Obaseki said about 19,000 primary and secondary school lessons using indigenous teachers based on Nigerian curriculum were being prepared.

On the rejuvenation of the satellite broadcasting service, he said the company had invested heavily to ensure that the satellite services did not fail again as was the case in 2009, barely a year after it began operations.

Obaseki said, “The emotional capital we have invested in DaarSat is even much more than financial capital that we have invested in it. The story of our coming back is more profound than the story of going down.”