Director General Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Dr Isa Ibrahim Pantami says very few universities in the country are technologically driven like NOUN.
The Director General stated this Tuesday while playing host to the Vice-chancellor, National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) Prof Abdalla Uba Adamu who led a delegation of Africa Centre of Excellence on Technology Enhanced Learning ACETEL of the University on a courtesy call.
“I commend your mission and vision in NOUN, it is a clear indication that you are ahead of many Universities in Nigeria. Very few Universities come here to talk about ICT with the passion you have come with”.
Pantami maintained that only few institutions are willing to engage the agency because they are still operating manually.
He urged Vice-chancellor to keep challenging the status quo at NOUN as according to him without doing so, there would be no meaningful progress.
“Without changing the status quo we cannot change anything. Anyone who is scared of changing the status quo cannot move forward and make progress, we need people who are not dogma and are willing to take risks.”
While assuring of the agency’s full support of the partnership, the Director General promised NOUN a continuous relationship.
Earlier the Vice-chancellor NOUN Prof Abdalla Uba Adamu says ACETEL is a World Bank funded Centre at the University utilizing digital tools in enhancing learning.
The VC says the Centre has a mandate across West Africa to propagate education using digital tools.
He added that part of the visit was for the University and ACETEL to explore areas of support from NITDA in terms of ICT policies, enabling environment that will help develop short courses in cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence and advanced information technology as well as assist the Centre with digital solutions for enhanced learning.
Also speaking, the Centre Director Africa Centre of Excellence on Technology Enhanced Learning Prof Grace Jokthan says ACETEL is seeking collaboration with NITDA as a means of improving the system of education in Nigeria using ICT as the mode of delivery.
“At ACETEL, we are using digital tools and solutions to transmit education to wider people. We are asking for support from NITDA in terms of provision of Bandwidth, policy engagement, capacity development, virtual libraries, smart tools like tablets and android devices that learning contents would be codified for students”.
