Middle- Mr Soji Megbowon, the Maltina Teacher of the Year, First Runner Up 2019 Award winner shaking hands with the Representative of the Commissioner for Education, Mr Folashade Adefisayo, at the inauguration of the IOT Laboratory donated by Megbowon on Tuesday
An award winning public school teacher in Lagos, Mr Soji Megbowon, on Tuesday donated an Internet Of Things (IOT) Laboratory to students of Jakande Estate Comprehensive Senior College, Abesan, Ipaja-Lagos.
Megbowon, the Maltina Teacher of the Year, First Runner Up 2019 Award winner, said that the proceeds of the award was ploughed back to the school to advance education and research.
According to him, the gesture is part of his support for quality education and life long learning in the school.
Megbowon, who teaches Computer Science and Further Mathematics in the school, said: “I am fortunate to have young students who want to learn, explore and create innovations, so it is my duty to give them the platform to excel with my privilege.
“When I won the Nigerian Breweries’ Maltina Teacher of the Year First Runner Up in 2019, I was given N500,000 just like every other state champion and I felt that this N500,000 will do a lot instead of building a house for myself and my children.
“This IOT Centre will provide students with opportunity to connect to their mates across the world and to learn while teachers will have opportunity to develop so as to provide quality education.
” Before this official commissioning, my students are already using the facility to apply for opportunities and scholarship abroad. They will do a lot now.”
The teacher, who noted that he had converted his family living room to helping less privileged students to excel, said that the award gave him the privilege to provide bigger platform to help them.
Megbowon, who lauded Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s education programme in his THEMES agenda, said that providing such IOT facility in all schools would bring the best of students and teachers in the state.
“Students must be given opportunity to interact with solutions that are workable through IOT. So my plea to the government is to replicate this kind of ideas in all our schools.
“If the government can tap into this idea, take it and copy it in all these schools, then our students will compete with their counterparts abroad.
Speaking at the inauguration of the facility, the Commissioner for Education, Mrs Folashade Adefisayo, commended Megbowon for being selfless and expressed the state government believe in digital technology as a tool for promoting Lagos as a Smart City.
Adefisayo, who was represented by Dr Adetola Salau, Senior Special Assistant on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) Education, urged the school to take possession of the facility and sustain it.
She said: “We like to promote and advocate programmes like this. It is wonderful to see projects that are being birthed by our teacher. This means a lot to us. These are the kind of projects we endorse and validate.
“This is exciting and challenging. It will impact a lot on the students and improve their performance because education these days has gone beyond acquiring knowledge and using such to pass a test and get a certificate.
“Education now is about solving problems and creative thinking. A project like this makes the students engage in projects where they are thinking and solving problems working with one another and collaborating with teachers across the world.”
She said that the students were highly favoured to have Megbowon who was connecting them to the world, stressing that the teacher would continue to be remembered.
Also speaking, Mrs Titilayo Solarin, the Tutor General/Permanent Secretary, Education District I, who was represented by Mr Oluyemi Adesina, the Director of School Administration in the district, said that Megbowon should be emulated.
Also speaking, Mrs Amarachi Mbagwo, the representive of the Nigerian Breweries, said that the gesture had reinforced that the company did not make a mistake given Megbowon the award.
Mbagwo said.”This reinforces what the Nigerian Breweries and Maltina celebrate when it comes to teachers. We have to keep on recognising what Mr Soji has done today.
“Maltina teacher of the year is about celebrating world class teachers, recognising them and what he has done affirms that we picked best of the best teacher who is giving back to the students. We are very proud of him.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the IOT is a school research centre that empowers students to make research, create, innovative technologies to improve learning.