Experts advocate technology adoption for Nigerian universities
For the Nigerian universities and their products to compete favourably with their counterparts globally, it has been suggested that there must be a strategic adoption of technology as an integral part of the teaching and learning process.
According to a group of experts and university administrators that spoke at the maiden edition of the Future Ready University Conference held at the Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, which drew participants from over 50 Nigerian universities, the country can’t afford to lag behind in the deployment of technology at its tertiary institutions.
The conference organised by Softcom Limited in partnership with Diamond Bank and Samsung Electronics provided opportunities for participants to witness practical applications of mobile learning devices which are already operational at the Covenant University.
Yomi Adedeji, managing partner/CEO, Softcom Limited in his opening remarks, said that the Future Ready University Conference was a strategic initiative aimed at encouraging Nigerian universities, having realised that mobile learning is the future of education globally.
According to him, “The vision of this conference is to educate and inspire leaders from selected universities in the country to improve education service delivery through technology adoption which will improve learning experience and boost the overall academic outcome of students in Nigeria. Mobile learning is the future of education and we have successfully kick-started it here in Nigeria through the Covenant University Future Ready University programme.’’
He said the mobile learning programme is a revolutionary portable mobile device bundled with EduSocial apps that allows students access course materials, lecture notes, case studies and university libraries via their mobile devices.
On his own part, social critic, university administrator and entrepreneur, Prof. Pat Utomi said the adoption and deployment of technology is a great opportunity for Nigerian tertiary institutions to leapfrog the numerous challenges confronting higher education in the country.
Utomi, who delivered a key note address titled, “Tertiary Education: Key drivers, Challenges and the Role of Technology”, listed some of the challenges confronting tertiary education in Nigeria to include poor infrastructure, lack of competent teachers, high cost of good education and lack of practical relevance of tertiary curriculum.
Charles Ayo, vice chancellor, Covenant University while sharing the case study the school noted that technology has transformed the learning process in the institution.
According to Ayo, “Technology is an integral part of life at the Covenant University. It is an important part of our curriculum. We have also made sure that the university deploys it into as many of our activities as possible.
Right from the admission process to payment, lecture delivery in the classroom, teleconferencing to engage our partners all over the world and most importantly equipping our laboratories with the state of the art technology that will place us at the same pedestal with any world-class university any way in the world, we are proud to say that we do not compromise when it comes to deploying ICT.”
Olubumi Ekundare, managing director, Intel Corporation West Africa, stressed on the importance of making Nigerian tertiary institutions ICT complaint. He decried the situation where 1 in 10 students own a PC and 3 in 10 students have occasional access to a PC.
Ekundare observe that today, a paltry five percent of our universities have computer infrastructure for scientific research. “Only 20 percent of our tertiary institutions have digitised their academic records while 30 percent have digitised their administrative records. This is not sustainable. The sooner ICT begins to be treated as priority then we will see a huge improvement in our tertiary institutions.” He said.