Tunisia’s broadband example: Commentray
That Nigeria has continued to pay lip service to information technology education and development is no news to anyone familiar with the sector in the country.
This is exemplified by the fact that the government failed to provide the needed legal recognition to the agency it set up to develop the sector, despite an avowed claim that it wants to use technology to grow the economy.
The situation is even more laughable when one considers that Nigeria also said it wanted to rival the likes of India and China and become a leading economy in the next twenty years. Let it be stated that this desire cannot be accomplished if current level of neglect of information technology continues.
But Nigeria’s desire to become a leading global economy is not the main issue for discussion today. The main issue is on bringing computers and computer education to schools.
The need to discuss this subject had become necessary after a recent announcement by Tunisia that it would give broadband internet connection to all her schools and also build computer laboratories and employ computer teachers to teach the subject.
The move by Tunisia shows what is possible and should be done in any county that wants to develop her people and also become a major economic force in the future.
Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is that there is no clear programme with a measurable timeframe or milestones to bring computer education and internet access to Nigerian schools.
The manner in which the matter has been handled could make the uninitiated think IT education is like rocket science.
Apart from the recent one laptop-per-child scheme, which we all know would not be able to address all the needs in the education sector, no parallel government programmes are in place to quicken IT growth in the country. OLPC is good, but more efforts need to be made to grow IT literacy in Nigeria, given the country’s size and desire.
Nothing further proves this lack of commitment to IT education in Nigeria than a report by the United Nations that it would take Nigeria 500 years to bring Internet access to her schools given the current level of activities.
Even Lagos State, which claimed to have brought Internet into some schools under the past administration, is a long way from bringing access to all schools in the state.
What makes the Tunisian scheme interesting is the fact that it has also stated the details of implementation. Some 846 additional computer teachers would be employed and about 900 laboratories would be built.
Maybe one could use this medium to appeal to President Musa Yar ‘Adua to mandate the National Information Technology Development Agency to look at this development and see how it could be done in Nigeria.
It must be noted, however, that the success of this scheme cannot come without solving the problem of electricity.
Even in Abuja, where almost all government experiments start, electricity is still a problem.
Already, power has been identified as major setback for computer education scheme in Nigeria. Even in Abuja, one of the problems that was experienced by those implementing the scheme was the lack of power in some schools.
This is exemplified by the fact that the government failed to provide the needed legal recognition to the agency it set up to develop the sector, despite an avowed claim that it wants to use technology to grow the economy.
The situation is even more laughable when one considers that Nigeria also said it wanted to rival the likes of India and China and become a leading economy in the next twenty years. Let it be stated that this desire cannot be accomplished if current level of neglect of information technology continues.
But Nigeria’s desire to become a leading global economy is not the main issue for discussion today. The main issue is on bringing computers and computer education to schools.
The need to discuss this subject had become necessary after a recent announcement by Tunisia that it would give broadband internet connection to all her schools and also build computer laboratories and employ computer teachers to teach the subject.
The move by Tunisia shows what is possible and should be done in any county that wants to develop her people and also become a major economic force in the future.
Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is that there is no clear programme with a measurable timeframe or milestones to bring computer education and internet access to Nigerian schools.
The manner in which the matter has been handled could make the uninitiated think IT education is like rocket science.
Apart from the recent one laptop-per-child scheme, which we all know would not be able to address all the needs in the education sector, no parallel government programmes are in place to quicken IT growth in the country. OLPC is good, but more efforts need to be made to grow IT literacy in Nigeria, given the country’s size and desire.
Nothing further proves this lack of commitment to IT education in Nigeria than a report by the United Nations that it would take Nigeria 500 years to bring Internet access to her schools given the current level of activities.
Even Lagos State, which claimed to have brought Internet into some schools under the past administration, is a long way from bringing access to all schools in the state.
What makes the Tunisian scheme interesting is the fact that it has also stated the details of implementation. Some 846 additional computer teachers would be employed and about 900 laboratories would be built.
Maybe one could use this medium to appeal to President Musa Yar ‘Adua to mandate the National Information Technology Development Agency to look at this development and see how it could be done in Nigeria.
It must be noted, however, that the success of this scheme cannot come without solving the problem of electricity.
Even in Abuja, where almost all government experiments start, electricity is still a problem.
Already, power has been identified as major setback for computer education scheme in Nigeria. Even in Abuja, one of the problems that was experienced by those implementing the scheme was the lack of power in some schools.
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