Less than 20% of varsities have access to ICT
National Universities Commission (NUC) in Nigeria says less than 20 per cent of the nation’s universities have access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The critical point according to the Commission is not the acquisition of hard wares and ICT skills for their own sake but the use of ICT as a tool for learning. According to the NUC, a comparison of the state of ICT in Nigeria with the U.S. shows that 91 per cent of persons in 100 households own personal computers when compared to three households in Nigeria. NUC said that it would take more than 30 years for Nigeria to catch up on the present situation.
Development Gateway turns varsity centre
Rwanda Development Gateway (RDG), which has hitherto been a project, has been approved by the University Council to become a centre at the National University of Rwanda. With the new status at the university, RDG has been tasked to manage the university web portal, alongside its consultancy and advocacy roles. Alongside the government portal, RDG has already developed websites for ministries and several government institutions.
E-Learning project to get underway soon
The Jamaica government’s e-learning project will get underway soon in 31 institutions across the island. The one-year pilot will be implemented in 28 high schools at the grades 10 and 11 levels, and three teachers colleges. After the test phase, the project will be rolled out to all of the nation’s 150 high schools from grades seven to 11. It has already started the orientation of teachers and should be starting the actual training in ICT and how to use ICT beginning in November. Launched in February 2006, the project is targeted at high school students and utilises both informal and formal methods of eaching. The schools are being equipped with the technologies that will allow them to access and to use the material and these include computers, desktops and laptops, multimedia projectors, documents and cameras.
One third of UK’s teachers ‘lack basic IT knowledge’
One third of the UK’s teachers lack the experience and knowledge required to operate basic IT systems and more importantly how to implement Information and Computer Technology (ICT) within the curriculum, according to new research. The findings of the survey says that lack of consistency in mplementing ICT in the UK’s education system could hold children’s development back by denying them access to the most up to date learning aids and methods. The survey showed that many staff in education continue to embrace traditional non-digital methods in the face of increasing demands for IT. A ‘digital divide’ is emerging between schools that embrace digital technologies and those schools hindered by deficiencies in ICT experience.
Ghana Gov’t unfolds strategies to roll out ICTS in educational institutions
The Ghana government is committed to the deployment of requisite tools and strategies to achieve the broad goal of every Ghanaian learner to be able to use ICTS confidently and creatively by 2015 because of the present nformation society and the global knowledge economy. Under the strategic plans, a Ghanaschools and Communities Initiative or GeSCI supported in part by Global eSchools and Communities Initiative and the NEPAD e-Schools Initiative of the African Union (AU) would be coordinated by the e-Africa Commission. The Government was encouraging initiatives like the new ebsitemycoursemate. com – from the private sector in the deployment of ICTs in education. The website is an indigenous Internet-based helpline for tudents where they could have access to tutorial services to enhance success in their academic work. It was Ghana’s and probably the sub-continent’s first online tutor for students, which would offer general tutorial services
