‘Strategic ICT deployment will shore up varsities global competitiveness’
Going by the strategic importance of information and communication, not a few education watchers have underscored its relevance to the nation’s education sector.
Analysts readily insist that the role that ICT plays in education, especially as it pertains to tertiary institutions worldwide cannot be over-emphasised.
Charles Uwadia, a professor of computer science at the University of Lagos, Akoka discloses that ICT has continued to profoundly impact all human endeavours ranging from education, business and finance to entertainment.
Uwadia observe that the state of ICT education in universities remains one of the crucial indicators of any institution’s seriousness in its quest to contribute to 21st century national development. This is because the quality of education in a society determines the quality of its leaders and the pace of social development.
“It is not out of place to assert that it is on the basis of quality education that societal and national development is measured he said
According to him, “Universities (higher institutions) in advanced and well-organised societies are the centres of social activities, and an ICT environment provides good platforms for research, teaching and learning.
He therefore called on Nigerian universities to tap into the fountain that the ICT provides, if they are to remain relevant in global academic rating.
“That no Nigerian university is ranked among the first 200 world universities alone indicates that without ICT, the rating of universities in this part of the divide will continue to dwindle”. He added
While some ICT professionals have expressed regrets that the management of several Nigerian universities has yet to appreciate the impact of a functional ICT academic environment on the total and global outlook of their institutions; others opine that university education today has gone beyond the four walls of an academic environment to a globalised cyber space adventure.
Chidi Egbe, an ICT expert and university lecturer on his part says the impact of ICT on tertiary institutions has been revolutionary, besides which it has heralded virtual processes such as e- learning, virtual library and virtual laboratory.
“It has become an enabler of an efficient and effective learning and research environment. With the advent of globalisation, ICT as an enabler and a tool for information processing and management has an enormous role to play in the university environment. Apart from supporting teaching and research, ICT has actually become a backbone resource required in key administrative activities or planning, monitoring, control and management.”
According to the professor, the university system is experiencing phenomenal growth in student enrolment, academic programmes, personnel, and activism among students, which pose enormous challenges to the process of administration, especially at a time when funds are diminishing.
“A look at the mission statement of any modern-day university would reveal the desire for standard and qualitative graduates who can compete globally, highly-rated research work, efficient and effective delivery of services. The achievement of such mission statements will demand internationalisation of the university and high-quality management of human and material resources,” he says.
He however regrets that only four Nigerian universities among over a hundred comprising federal, state and private have featured prominently in the website-based ranking of universities called “webometric ranking.” In his estimation, no Nigerian university can attain global recognition in research, management and administrative competence without a proper ICT outlook.
As far as he is concerned, “It is no longer news that most institutions of higher learning in Nigeria encounter daunting challenges,” adding that such challenges would have readily been solved with appropriate ICT solutions.
Kelechi Ewuzie