Curriculum
By Constance Athekame
Abuja, April 18, 2018 (NAN) Mr Bola Agboola, the Managing Director, Ximalog Global Solution, has called on the Federal Government to review ICT curriculum in higher institutions in line with emerging technologies.
Agboola , who is also a software developer made this call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said the curriculum at the nation’s higher institutions needed to be reviewed and upgraded as most of the technologies taught in these institutions were simply not up to date.
“ In fact, some of our university dons have not done anything recently to acquire new technologies and to upgrade themselves.
“A lot of students I interact with concerning their final year projects both at master’s level and undergraduates seemed not to have an idea of how to go about the practical of such project.
“The approach to ICT should be built around practical other than the theory of how it works, ‘’ he said.
Using India as a case study, he said the country had invariably become the global software centre.
He said Indians who went for training in the U.S. around the 1970s returned to their country to head various institutions and started many IT companies.
He said the Indian government’s role was to provide the enabling environment for such growth and development.
“This same principle can be applied to Nigeria, unfortunately a lot of our people rather than return to the country prefer to remain and work overseas.’’
Agboola however called on government to channel more resources toward research and development in the country’s institutions.
He said much of what was trending today such as the internet, Google and several programming languages started at the research facilities of some higher institutions in the U.S. or even as student projects.
According to him, government should encourage healthy competition among budding developers in the industry.
He said in the U.S., competitions such as Tech Crunch usually brought many developers together to organise healthy competitions among themselves and this promoted innovation and development. (NAN)
COA/GOM/GY
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Edited by Gregory Mmaduakolam/Grace Yussuf