Stakeholders in the Nigerian educational sector have been urged to adopt approaches that will promote interest of students in technology education.
The Nigeria British Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) and Education First Nigeria Limited (Edufirst) gave the advice at the 2020 Edutech Conference held recently with the theme “Jobs, Education and Technology: The New Normal”.
Speaking at the conference, the President and Council Chairman of NBCC, Mr. Kalowo Falowo noted that the situation of things occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed the weakness of education system in Africa.
Thus, education managers must ensure that they build on already made progress by sharing experiences on how to improve the education sector through technology.
According to him, at the onset of the pandemic, many countries in Africa had to temporarily close educational institutions in an attempt to contain the spread of Covid-19 in their respective countries.
“As people gradually readjusted to the new normal, the leadership and managers of higher education institutions across Africa became fully aware of the imperatives of embracing change in order to sustain the viability of their academic enterprise,” he said.
Falowo added that educational institutions at all levels in Nigeria and across Africa should adopt online learning platforms such as Google Learning, Udemy, Microsoft, Zoom and so on.
However, despite efforts to ensure a seamless migration to online platforms, students continue to experience challenges in the course of their academic pursuits.
According to UNESCO, 89 percent of students in sub-Saharan Africa do not have access to household computers and 82 percent lack internet access. This means online classes does not provide the full-fledged solution as desired”.
He disclosed that several universities across Africa, including countries such as Egypt, Ghana, South Africa and Rwanda among others have moved some of their programmes to online platforms and partnered with Telco’s to zero-rate these platforms’ adding that In some instances, these universities have made data packages and laptops available to students to improve access.
Meanwhile, the Managing Director of Edufirst, Mr. Moses Imayi said the role of technology in the education sector cannot be over emphasized. Hence, there is a need to encourage our future leaders to showcase innovation and creativity in their attempt to compete globally. He averred that Edufirst decided to bring in some students from the Federal Unity Colleges (FUCs) to showcase their inventions during the Covid-19 lockdown to encourage other students to brace up for technological innovations.
The conference paraded an array of educators in the private sector, students from our over 70 Technological Experience Centres in FUCs across the six geopolitical zones, students from the tertiary institutions, and other stakeholders. It featured interesting panel sessions, virtual networking sessions, virtual exhibitions, and students’ presentations. Close to 2,000 people attended the event.
