https://guardian.ng/features/expert-calls-for-full-digital-inclusion-in-varsity-education/j
Worried by the system of learning in the nation’s tertiary institutions, experts have called on the National Universities Commission (NUC) to upgrade learning systems to include digital learning and smart class in line with current trends.
They noted that the new normal would continue to change the way learning is done and increase total dependence on Information Communication Technology (ICT), which learning institutions must key into.
A Professor of Computer Science and Information Security, Adesina Sodiya, who spoke at the third matriculation ceremony of Trinity University, Sabo-Yaba, Lagos, said one lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic is that technology has come to stay.
Sodiya said digital skills had become imperative since work; social activities and access to core services are now being done through electronic devices.
He said: “At the start of lockdown, there was a need to get the most essential services running effectively and the effect of COVID-19 on education made learning difficult. Now that we are here, learning institutions should be digitally connected for ease of learning.”
While appealing to NUC to give a set standard for smart class and digital learning across institutions, Sodiya said most public schools are lagging behind in e-learning and measures must be put in place for an upgrade.
Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of Council, S. O Olatunji, reeled out efforts made by the university community to enhance learning through digital, advanced technology and other learning tools during the outbreak of COVID-19.
Olatunji said: “Our young university is growing steadily in the pursuit of her mandate. This is inspite of the considerable challenges besetting mankind especially COVID-19, which struck less than a year after the school started.
During the outbreak, we introduced smart learning for our students and also engaged them electronically which gave us some success rate.”
Vice-Chancellor, Prof Charles Korede, who lamented the current state of the sector, urged students to be change agents based on what they would be taught. Prof Korede told the 182 new students to be ready to change the narrative.
He said: “We must be mindful of history so that we do not repeat the same mistake. Trinity University is on a mission to raise young men and women who will recreate their world and help leapfrog the continent developmentally.
“They will help Africa solve her problems rather than rely on the west. With the kind of training we are giving them, these young students would make the ideals of African rising a reality,” Prof Korede said.