Government’s efforts to promote local content in software development have started yielding results as the Federal Ministry of Education (FMOE) recently endorsed the CINFORES BrainFriend e-learning and examination preparatory software as a tool for the enhancement of teaching and learning methods in Nigerian schools.
CINFORES Limited is an indigenous software provider, which had over the years developed various educational solutions, including the much talked about eCampus and electronic scholarship management information system.
The endorsement of BrainFriend software, which heralds the beginning of new era of local content development for education, using ICT was achieved after due assessment by the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council, (NERDC)
This milestone attained by CINFORES Limited, proves the commitment of indigenous software developers towards improving the education sector through the use of Information Technology (IT).
Speaking at a press conference to announce the endorsement at the weekend, the Manager, Business Development, CINFORES Limited, Jachi Briggs said the endorsement was a landmark which certifies the software as an e-learning and examination preparatory tool that should be adopted by schools, institutions, exam bodies and instructors across the country.
The endorsement by the ministry, she said is a public authentication that proves the software attained the requirements for a standard e-learning tool, suitable for the development of the education sector.
In a similar gesture, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has approved and certified the software. This is in line with the agency’s policy to test and ensure the quality of locally developed software, in a bid to make them meet the required global standards. For the agency, the benefit of promoting indigenous software such as Cinfores BrainFriend is the diversification of the nation’s economy and the enhancement of the scope of outsourcing in the industry.
The software which is computer based, contains questions and answers with explanations modelled after national examinations and screening tests, such as Post UTME, UTME, SSCE, NECO recruitment and scholarship tests. It is an e-learning tool that guarantees excellent result when used consistently by students or teachers.
Already, the 2013 version of the software which features over 50,000 questions, answers and explanations ,covers over 40 subjects; over 15,000 theorems, formula and definitions, and now includes technical drawing, computer science, food and nutrition,a more flexible career counselling guide and lots more. It is also now available for mobile devices running on android with IOS and Windows Mobile version to be released by the end of Q2 2013.
All these are accompanied with the new and exciting BrainFriend Mobile store and it promises to be the one-stop-shop for the revolution of education in Nigeria through ICT, industry watchers say.
It would be recalled that the Nigerian Union of Teachers, (NUT), Lagos State chapter and the Cross Rivers State Government, in partnership with IT&C networks have deployed the Cinfores Brainfriend software for teachers in their respective states, and many more states are gearing up to follow suit.
