The Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) and Accenture Nigeria, while acknowledging the existence of many recognized value levers for driving national development, called for leveraging technology as the tool to deliver growth in education, Nigeria CommunicationsWeek can report.
The duo highlighted that technology, apart from being a sine qua non in skills building in the contemporary society, if offer support to drives for national development.
Professor David Adewumi, president of NCS, while speaking in Enugu at NCS conference which ended on Friday, said that technology in education is the bedrock of achieving sustainability of human and equipment resources needed to move every nation forward.
According to him, NCS convincingly chose the Conference topic: ‘Building a Knowledge-Based Economy in Nigeria: The Role of Information Technology”, as measure to draw participants and the general public’s attention to the imperative of prioritizing IT inclusion in all sectors of the economy.
At the meetings Adewumi observed that though Nigeria has come a long way, it was not far enough. Despite some recent achievements and improvements in the digital landscape in Nigeria, the country needs to do more, practically, on the ground.
“The role of technology is vital in empowering citizens economically and socially and laying the foundations for sustainable development. However, talk is cheap. We have had more discussions on technology than ever before. But NCS is concerned that there is too much talking the talk without walking the walk.
He added that digital inclusion is still a challenge that can’t be covered up by empty sloganeering. Technology must transform people’s lives”.
In a paper titled, “Application of Knowledge Technologies & Engineering in National Development”, Mr. Niyi Yusuf, country managing director, Accenture Nigeria, identified that literacy level of a population has direct impact on national development.
Thus, the nagging challenges of low literacy rate at 51%; poor education funding; dearth of teachers; obsolete educational content; little/no access to schools and educational resources in rural areas; growing young population with significant numbers not learning and increasing cost of education, must be tackled as soon as possible using technology.
The paper highlighted that the application of knowledge technologies must be, accessible, cost effective, relevant, easy to use and relevant.
On Accessibility, Yusuf opined that “Knowledge resources need to be accessible to all who need them. This includes the historically under-served demography especially within the rural areas
“Cost Effective: A key feature impacting accessibility is cost, and in order to ensure that the target users are able to access the resources, it must also be low cost in order to be affordable
“Easy to Use: Solutions must be easy to use in order to facilitate adoption. The scenario where valuable resources are not utilized due to complexity is a common one, and must be avoided
“Relevant: Knowledge resources must be relevant both within the local and national contexts. Focus should be placed on skills that will benefit the individual, the community, and ultimately the nation”.
He added that Nigeria can leverage on three (3) key global trends that are reducing the historical challenges of lack of power and cost of technology required for practical implementation.
They are, cost of devices, device power consumption and solar power cost per watt.
“These trends will allow leapfrogging by utilizing e-content, low cost devices, cloud computing, and renewable energy sources,” he said.
In his words, “Make no mistake, the gaps are huge. We have only scratched the surface of the problem. Government is looking for innovative ways and smart ideas to resolve the issues. The challenge to us as technologists is how far can we take this forward to help along the process in shaping the right models of knowledge technologies that can work in our environment”.