SPDC donates e-learning centre in Niger Delta

THE Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC)-operated Joint Venture has handed over a second E-Learning centre in the Niger Delta as it intensifies efforts to promote science education. According to a statement by the oil company, Bonny National Grammar School in Rivers State has now taken over a fully-furnished centre with modern equipment consisting of 80 computers and one-year internet subscription provided by the SDPC. A similar centre, the statement added, was handed over to Nembe National Grammar school, Bayelsa State in June last year.In an address at the handover ceremony, the Rivers State Commissioner of Education, Dame Alex Nemi, said: The government is pleased with the level of facilities provided at the centre as they will go a long way to facilitate the teaching and learning of science subjects.SDPCs General Manager, Sustainable Development and Community Relations, Mr Tony Attah said: Education is key to the development of any society. This is why we are making every effort to encourage learning and teaching through scholarship awards, sabbaticals and sponsorship of professorial chairs in Nigerian universities. The statement also noted that Bonny National Grammar School and Nembe National Grammar School were pilots for deployment of the SkooolNigeria project in the Niger Delta, a web-based science programme. In 2006, SPDC collaborated with the National Education Research and Development Council (NERDC), INTEL Corporation and the Education Trust Fund (ETF) to develop, localize and deploy the interactive educational portal covering the national curricular for teaching and learning of English, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology as well as Integrated Science for both Junior and Senior Secondary schools in Nigeria. SkooolNigeria was officially launched in Abuja in 2008, and available on the website www.skooolnigeria.com.SPDC hopes to embed the programme in the Niger Delta and bring the benefits to classrooms. Training of teachers and students at Bonny and Nembe has been carried out and solar power has also been installed. Chief Owen Manila Pepple, the traditional prime minister of Bonny kingdom, said I am happy to see that the young ones are being given the foundation to equip them for a better tomorrow, because a child that is illiterate lacks the capacity to shun evil. SPDC has been supporting education since the 1960s, awarding scholarships to Nigerians to study abroad. At any one time, SPDC scholarships supported more than 17,000 secondary school and university students. 
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