Emeka Aginam, Asst. Online Editor
7 January 2009
Even with the present government's posture in encouraging IT education in the Nigerian educational sector, only less than 10% of Nigerian tertiary institution curricula has digital content, a technology deficit which translates a major challenge in an effort to bridge Nigeria's digital divide in the 21st century knowledge economy.
This backward trend, according to Dr Jimson Olufuye, President of Information Technology Association of Nigeria, (ITAN)the President/ Chief Executive Officer of AfrHUB, Prof. Manny Aniebonam, must stop so that Nigerian students after graduation will be able to face the challenge ahead
"While IT in Education in our higher institutions is graduation appearing on the radar, same cannot be said of IT in Education in our primary and secondary schools. So, from my assessment therefore, about 10% of our tertiary institution curricula has digital content which is still in the area of literature review, research and administration but not in teaching itself.
"There is still a lot of work to be done. However, we are hopeful that the ITAN OSPC project powered by endowed old students in government and private sector along with some deliberate efforts of some government agencies and state governments can push IT in Education in primary and secondary schools into the radar but for now, digital content in our primary and secondary schools is infinitesimal" Olufuye said
According to the ITAN President who has before now raised alarm over poor IT education in the country, Nigerian students regrettably are not well equipped." Little proficiencies we see in a few of them is as a result of personal effort by these students and that is not how to gather IT capacity momentum for the challenges ahead particularly the Vision 20 2020 challenge" he explained.
The implication, according to him is that many of them after graduation will be unemployed. "Because they are not employed/employable, there is economic drag. Someone that should be productive is still dependent on the economy.
"If this scenario is multiplied in a thousand fold then you'll understand the enormous economic opportunities we're missing with insufficient attention paid to the quality of teachers, lecturers and graduates produced in our institution" he added.
The position of the last Minister of Education to attain 30% reach for IT in Education in our primary and secondary schools, he said is most unpatriotic.
"How can we have a plan to be one of the 20 most industrialized nation by 2020 when we treat education like that. Infact, the need to intervene seriously must be in overdrive and more that 100% attention must be paid to driving education by IT in our primary and secondary schools. Efforts by ITAN & NCS through OSPC must be invigorated. States must take their future into their hands by investing heavily in e-learning.
"Some have spoken that the infrastructures are just not there to make it possible. The question I ask them is what infrastructure was there when the telecom miracle started in 2001.
"Once the will is there would be a way! So, the Education Trust Fund (ETF), the Universal Service Provision Funds (USPF) and the likes with public funds for this sector must evolve new ideas and paradigm to effectively address the obsolesce of our education system. The time to act and act patriotically is now!" he said.
Similarly, the President of AfriHub, Prof. Manny Aniebonam had earlier in his remarks during the official opening of University of Benin International ICT center in collaboration with Zinox Computers Limited noted that there was need for urgent intervention to correct the anomalies otherwise Nigerian students may not be able to face the knowledge economy.
"Majority of students in Nigerian universities do not have basic computer resources, equipment nor skills. Studies show that less than 10% do. This severely impacts on their ability to get the most out of their university learning experience. It also severely impacts on their preparedness and marketability for the workforce upon graduation.
" Employers have told us that in many cases, they have to put new hires through in_house training, for over 12 months, especially in ICT, prior to deploying them to their assignments" he explained.
While expressing optimism that in no distant future AfriHUB will transform UNIBEN into one of the most e-compliant tertiary institution in West Africa, he said that this same lack of computer skills exists among trainers and faculty at our universities making the problem worse, as they are not able to incorporate the benefits of computer technology in their teaching, research, and service to the university community.
In a recent ranking of global universities using Webometric methods, according to him, no Nigerian university was ranked among the first 1000 universities, much as UNIBEN came up the best in Nigeria. "Justified or not, it raises several questions as to what type of intervention must be applied by Nigerian academic institutions in order to address the issue of capacity building including infrastructure, telecommunications, human, and research capacities.
Today, we are witnessing a great stride by the University of Benin, Benin to address these challenges head on, placing it on the way to becoming the first Nigerian university to be ranked on top of any webometric chart within the next two years" Aniebonam said.
While advocating a compulsory ICT education right from the kindergarten as is obtained developed economies, Aniebonam who has been very passionate about capacity building using ICT reasoned that there is a growing consensus on the importance of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in enabling social, economic and political growth around the globe, adding that developing countries such as Nigeria, in appreciation of the developmental potentials of technology, are thus willing to exploit these potentials to achieve productivity improvement, organizational effectiveness and business competitiveness.
In the area of capacity building, he was optimistic that AfriHUB/Zinox Partnership will annually train and certify over 10,750 students of this institution in ICT, providing each student with the ability to utilize the varied tools of ICT in their academic studies, regardless of their concentration.
With optimism, he said this in 5 years, will bring to 100% the percentage of UNIBEN student population who will be e-compliant, e-literate, and highly employable in today's tight job market .
In addition, and through special arrangements with Zinox Technologies and the Computerize Nigeria Program, he said that over 2000 academic staff of UNIBEN will own a laptop, allowing for higher academic productivity, research and effective service to the university community. "The end result is that all analog lecturer at the university will soon become digital lecturers and e-compliant professors" he added.
The ICT center at UNIBEN, he noted will have one of the best ultra_modern ICT Centers in Nigeria, with over 750 computers and access points, 2.5 megabits per second bandwidth, a cyber center with 250 workstations, eight well_equipped classrooms each with 25 computers each, a functional business center, and a conference room with video conferencing capability
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