For several years now Nokia has been committed to providing mobile learning opportunities to help boost the quality of education.

In partnership with UNESCO, the UN’s educational, scientific and cultural organisation, Nokia is today launching the new English Teacher service to assist primary school teachers in Nigeria by providing free professional development support through their mobile phones.

The Nokia Life+ ‘English Teacher’ service is the one of the first initiatives in Nigeria to use mobile technology to help teachers nationwide.

The British Council and the National Teachers Institute of Nigeria are also supporting this project.

English Teacher

English Teacher service is designed specifically for the needs of primary grade English teachers in Nigeria, recognising the crucial role they will play in preparing the next generation of Nigerians for a world of opportunities.

The service provides teacher development content that has been developed by the British Council and follows Nigeria’s primary grade English curriculum.

Through their mobile phones, teachers will be able to access high quality English teaching techniques, resources, activities and other materials to help them in the classroom.

There are new professional development articles every day based on different fortnightly themes. Also included are learning activities followed by short quizzes. The service has enough content for over a year.

Power of mobile learning

Speaking at the launch event for English Teacher in Abuja, Nigeria, Steven Vosloo, the project coordinator for UNESCO said:

“Our aim from the beginning was to develop a service that teachers working in difficult conditions and without a great deal of support could access quickly. Mobile technology is a promising avenue and, in some instances, the only option.” 

Nick Imudia, Managing Director, Nokia West and Central Africa, said:

“It is a great privilege for us at Nokia to develop the ‘English Teacher’ service in partnership with UNESCO and British Council. This mobile phone service provides teachers across Nigeria with the opportunity to positively impact both spoken and written English language skills in pupils in primary grades.

“According to a recent study by the United Nations – out of the world’s estimated seven billion people, six billion have access to mobile phones – It is evident that mobile technology has become an integral part of people’s lives and the opportunity for life improvement via mobile is obvious.”

Nokia and UNESCO hopes that the English Teacher service will especially benefit teachers in rural communities and in Nigeria’s northern states, where this need is most urgent. 

Nokia Life+

The teachers can use the English Teacher service for free, without any subscription fees, however operator data charges apply.

The service will be available through the Nokia Life+, the latest evolution of the widely used Nokia Life service that provides life-enhancement information for people in emerging markets such as India, China and Indonesia. Nokia Life+ in Nigeria also offers ‘Life Skills’, ‘Live Healthy’ and ‘Learn English’ services aimed at young Nigerians.

Nokia Life+ is accessed through a web app that is available on a wide range of Series 40 devices, including the Nokia Asha smartphones. The web app works with the Nokia Xpress browser, which compresses data by up to 90 per cent to make it both faster and cheaper to get online.