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| ICT
RESEARCH |
ICT
In Nigeria’s Education Sector
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published research report (below), in the 2005 edition of Nigerian
ICT Handbook, looked at the place of ICT in the educational sector
of the Nigerian Economy. What was it like at that time and how far
has the country gone now in equipping Nigerian schools with ICT facilties
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Education
The Nigerian educational sector has come a long way since 1934 when
Yaba High College was established to train the desired middle-level
manpower to serve in the then British colonial administration. Today,
we have many federal, state and private educational institutions,
with over 5 million youth and adults at the primary, secondary and
tertiary levels and employing over 1 million workers as teachers
and administrators. This development has led to big improvements
in the ability of Nigerians to read and write in many languages,
as well as being able to understand and contribute to the management
of their social, economic and political environments.
In the 2003 edition of the Nigerian
ICT Handbook, it had been hoped that information technology would
greatly support developments in this sector. Besides the use of
accounting packages for the payment of salaries and other emoluments,
the computer, the Internet and the global system for mobile telephony
(GSM), are beginning to make a significant impact in education processes
in Nigeria.
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In the first
place, checking of the results of examinations conducted by such bodies
such as the Interim Joint Matriculation Examination (IJME), the National
Examination Council (NECO), or the West African Examination Council
(WAEC) is now done on-line. Also, some institutions now conduct their
sessional registration exercises through the Internet. The University
of Abuja is currently implementing its distance-learning programme
via the Internet. These are landmark developments made possible by
computer technology.
The increasing applications of ICT have also been reflected in the
number of personal computers used in the sector. For example, between
2003 and 2004, the sector recorded a significant 38% increase in the
number of computers available in the sector. |
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By
the turn of this decade, the Nigerian student populace would become
more computer literate and this would continue to enhance ICT capacity
and empowerment in the sector and the country in general.
However, some more challenging and
untapped areas remain, including the processing of examination and
other student records, as well as library services management. Computer
technology can also be used in the preparation of certificates such
that the pictures of graduating students can be foiled into their
certificates.
Another huge area of challenge is the
synchronization of policy and technology in a democratic dispensation.
For the benefits ICT to be meaningful and consolidated, there is
urgent need for the right political will to encourage the building
of local content systems and applications through the establishment
of a mega-university computer centre for research, and the building
and development of a Nigerian information technology.
This could assist in creating cheap
computers with local content that are adaptable to other environments.
The student-computer usage ratio still hovers around 10:1. This
is certainly not healthy for the effective teaching of computer
science and related disciplines in the country. Therefore, it is
a veritable area for future investment.
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With
the vast information resources available on the Internet,
Nigerian students and teachers can have access to better teaching
aids and models, scholarships and grants, vital research reports
and other general information needed in their academic pursuits.
Application
of Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
Today, ICT is key to the development of any nation in the
world.
Besides its office and data management
uses, it is used in teaching the computer sciences, distance
learning, online conferencing in workshops and seminars, certification
programmes, software development using different tools and
platforms, desktop publishing, email and most especially,
in research.
Through the Internet and with
the aid of special accessories, students and scholars can
have access to very big libraries situated offshore.
The buying of books can also
be effected through the Internet as well as through e-cuttings.
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All
these activities are available through ICT but for an underdeveloped
economy like Nigeria, the starting point should be the teaching
of ICT from the basics.
Research
Findings
Personal Computers
The study revealed that in this industry there were 28,839 PCs,
representing 2.29% of the total number of PCs used by organizations
in Nigeria.
The percentage share of each brand
of PCs in this industry was as follows: Compaq (29.0%), Clone (27.4%),
IBM (11.0%), Zinox (9.5%), Dell (6.8%), Others (5.0%), HP (4.5%),
Omatek (3.0%), Micron (2.8%), UNITEC (0.8%) and Acer (0.2%), as
shown in Figure 9.1.
Servers
(Mainframes/Minicomputers/Mid Range)
In this sector, there were 1,466 Mainframes/Minicomputers/Mid Range
Servers, representing 0.97% of the total number of Servers used
by organizations in Nigeria.
The percentage distribution of Servers in this sector revealed that
Compaq (32.9%), Data General (32.9%), Dell (13.9%), IBM (11.4%),
Zinox (7.6%), Sun (1.4%), were the models being used, as shown in
Figure 9.2.
Hardware Peripherals
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Printers
The total number of Printers in this sector was 5,051, that is,
1.45% of the total number of Printers used by organizations in Nigeria.
The frequency distribution of Printers
by brand is shown in Figure 9.3. The percentages show that HP was
the most used printer in the sector, with (83%), Epson (15%), Okidata
(1%) and Canon (1%).
The distribution of Printers by category
is shown in Figure
Source: Compumetrics, 2004
UPS
The total number of UPS in this sector was 20,482, representing
3.96% of the total number of UPS used in organizations in Nigeria. |
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The distribution of UPS by capacity shows that UPS of Less than
650VA had the highest level of usage with 14,870 (72%);
those Above 650VA and Less than
2KVA were 5,318 (26%); those Above 2KVA and Less 6KVA 153 (1%);
and Network UPS were 141 (1%).
The frequency distribution of UPS models
is shown in Figure 9.5,
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indicating
that the APC brand hadthe highest patronage in the sector (92%),
MGE (5%), Sunpac (1%), Mercury (1%), and Vitron (1%).
Source: Compumetrics, 2004
Scanners
The total number of Scanners in this sector was 1,110, representing
0.47% of the total number of Scanners used by all the sectors in
Nigeria. Figure 9.6 indicates that the Flatbed type of Scanners
led with 96%, suggesting the overwhelming majority of organizations
preferred the Flatbed type.
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The
percentage distribution of Scanners by brand shows that HP products
had the highest level of patronage (48%) in the industry, while
Genius had 16%, Logic tech (10%), Panasonic (9%), Epson (9%) and
Mercury (9%). Figure 9.7 shows the frequency distribution by model.
Source: Compumetrics,
2004
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PABX
The percentage of companies that had a PABX system installed was
as low as 25%; 75% did not have a PABX.
Online
Services
In this sector, 80% of the organizations offered online services
through the Internet/telephone, while 20% did not offer online services
at all.
Type of Access to the Internet
The types of access that organization reportedly had to Internet
service providers were VSAT (58%), Dial-up (11%), Microwave (Wireless)
(26%), and Dedicated Lines (EI) (5%).
Use of the Internet The use of the Internet in various ways by organizations
were as follows: E-mail, Browsing and Information search/research
had 81% each, while Information dissemination had 31% and Marketing/Advertising
had 6%.
Rating
of ISP Services
Figure 9.9 shows the rating of the ISP services in this sector.
ICT Budget
An average of N97.715 million was budgeted annually in this sector,
out of which N4.308 million (4.4% of the total annual budget) was
spent on ICT-related pr nnual budget, it indicates a very low investment
on ICT-related projects by organizations in this sector (See Figure
9.10).
Source: Compumetrics,
2004
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ICT
Policy
In this sector, 45% of the organizations had a documented
ICT policy, but most (55%) did not.
Importance of ICT
The organizations rated the importance of an ICT policy as:
Very high (67%), High (22%) and Low (11%).
This suggests that majority of
organizations in this sector considered an ICT policy very
important.
Maintenance Agreement
The survey revealed that 68% of the organizations in this
sector had a maintenance agreement for Hardware Equipment,
Software Systems, Network Infrastructure, and Communication
Systems.
The organizations that did not
have a maintenance agreement constituted 32%.
ICT Personnel
There were 2,628 ICT professionals in the Education sector;
representing 2.68% of the total ICT professionals in organizations
in Nigeria.
Specializations in ICT
Figure 9.11 shows that most ICT personnel |
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specialized
in Training (41%).
ICT
Qualifications
Those who had ICT-related degrees in this sector were
as follows: BSc/HND (52%), M.Sc/PhD (27%), ND/Diploma
(20%) and Others (1%).
The distribution of Certified
ICT professionals in this sector were: MCSE/MCSD/MCP
(23%), CISA (23%), Oracle DBA (45%), Networking+ (5%),
and Others (4%). Structured Reporting Management Format
for ICT
In this sector, 35% of the organizations indicated that
they had a structured reporting management format for
the ICT departments while 65% did not have at all. This
shows that the level of structured reporting management
format was somewhat low in this sector.
The percentage distribution
is shown in Figure 9.11.
Salary Range of Management Staff (Per ICT Skills Requirement
In this sector, 50% of the organizations considered
ICT skills a compulsory requirement for employment,
20% considered ICT skills “not too compulsory”,
while 30% considered ICT skills is “not compulsory
at all”.
ICT
Training
No fewer than 15% of the organizations surveyed did
not have training plans for their staff; 60% offered
training as required, 10% on a yearly basis while 5%
each offered training on a |
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Month)
Communications and Network Infrastructure
The network infrastructure in this sector showed that 65%
of the organizations had LAN, 25% had WAN, and 10% had MAN.
This means majority of the organizations had a computer network.
A total of 28,503 (99%) out of
the total PCs (28,839) in the sector were connected to a Network.
This indicates that virtually all PCs in the organizations
in this sector were connected to a network.
The networked services available revealed that Internet services
had 42%, E-mail (38%), Extranet services (10%), Intranet services
(7%), and None (3%). This means that the sector used their
networks mostly for Internet services and E-mail.
Telephone
and Fax Lines
From the study, there were 35,585 telephone and 166 fax lines
in this industry, representing 5.38% and 0.45% respectively
of the total number of telephone and fax lines used by organizations
in Nigeria.
Figure 9.8 shows the distribution of telecommunications lines
in the sector, with Landlines (94%), Mobile GSM (6%) and Mobile
(0.1%).
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