THE Minister of Education, Prof. Ruqayyatu Ahmed Rufai directed all institutions under her ministry to strive to have requisite Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure, including access to Internet. This she said was in keeping with the Federal Government's directives that all ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) must be ICT compliant.The minister gave the directive while declaring open a two-day national workshop on ICT education in Nigeria in Abuja recently, noted that the attainment of quality education in modern day society rested squarely on the introduction of ICT education into the curricula. Besides, she noted that the successful contributions to meeting the millennium development goals (MDGs) and Education for All (EFA) were most likely to be made through the deployment of ICT in education.The workshop, which was jointly organised by the ministry, in collaboration with some international agencies like Huawei Technology Company Nigeria Ltd, Galaxy Backbone among others was aimed at integrating ICT into all levels of education so as to enhance the quality of education. It is also important to make education more accessible to all, thus contributing to the attainment of MDGs and EFA goals by 2015.According to the minister: 'The Federal Government recognises the vital role and place of ICT in enhancing the competitiveness of the economy within the global marketplace, increasing the ability of governments to deliver on their social goals, widening access to education, enhancing quality standards as well as reducing the cost of providing education at all levels. As a result, government has the development and deployment of ICT a priority.'She described the conference theme: Formulating a viable policy framework for ICT in education' as not only timely, but also crucial as it aligned with the current drive by the Federal Government and particularly the ministry.'In the FME, we believe that successful contributions to meeting the MDGs and EFA goals are most likely to be made through the development and deployment of ICT in education. Thus, the ICT initiatives which are being put in place would focus on increasing access through distance learning in order to bring educational opportunities to greater numbers of people including those who hitherto would have been excluded, enabling a knowledge network for students to facilitate timely transmission of information and knowledge, training of teachers and trainers through-on the job training and continuing education, broadening and availability of quality education materials through the use of networks technologies for the design of curricula that best meet the needs of students and enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of educational administration and policy.The minister, who listed some of the achievements so far made by the ministry in the deployment of ICT facilities included the introduction of computer acquisition scheme which targets the provisions of computers to government staff at all levels of education at preferential rates under a consumer-finance arrangement, the introduction of e-learning to facilitate teaching and learning and the establishment of innovation enterprise institutions (IEIs) to address skill gap in such areas as ICT, position youths to favourably compete globally and increase access and alternative route to tertiary education.Others included the development of the curricula for information technology (IT) education for all levels of education to prepare students and learners from the onset to adapt to the rapidly changing knowledge requirements and skills necessary function in and contribute effectively to the contemporary society, use of ICT to streamline the education delivery management framework through the establishment of a converged education sector data base to transform the administrative process to for effective and efficient administration of education in the country.ICT capacity building for teachers and educational administrators through internationally recognised certifications with international computer driving license as basic minimum certification for literacy.Huawei Deputy Managing Director for Abuja zone, Osita Iweze in a goodwill message at the opening session of the conference said that the company was eager to work with the ministry and other stakeholders to ensure continuous improvement of ICT assets and application in Nigeria.Huawei Technologies Company Nigeria Limited is among leading telecommunications companies sponsoring the first national conference on ICT in education holding in Abuja as part of its commitment to enriching education through improving ICT infrastructure in Nigeria.This is part of the collaborations between the Federal Ministry of Education and Huawei, which began in March with the unveiling of a scholarship scheme at the University of Lagos. At the end of this conference, three top students selected from the project papers would receive one year free tuition while selected students would have the opportunity of a free half day training at the company's Abuja Training Centre.
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