Wednesday 17 June 2020

E-learning: The way to go in Nigeria Tertiary Institutions, Olatuja Gabriel-Wealth Tells ASUU

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It was in the news recently that the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, said that E-learning cannot work in Nigeria. I want to air my opinion here. 

I have identified 3 factors that won't make e-Learning work efficiently in Nigeria:

1. Poor electric power supply - what happens when students who wants to attend online class have not means of charging or powering their devices and can't afford alternative means of electricity ?

2. Expensive and poor internet services -Nigerian internet providers are exploiters. You buy N2k data, it gets exhausted for just updating an app. This is coupled with the poor internet connections experienced across all Internet Service Providers, iSPs.

3. Poverty - the poverty in the land has made it impossible or unaffordable for most students to get the best from e-learning. For example, not all students can afford a smartphone or a PC. Not all students can have the funds to constantly subscribe to internet services. 

What's my point? 

E-learning is the solution to Nigeria's poor and under-standard education system. E-learning will solve the problem of academic facilities across our tertiary institutions. 

Most of our youth ended up becoming uneducated because of the competitiveness of the available space in the institutions. These are youth who have passed all necessary exams from SSCE, JAMB and Post-Jamb. They end up not being admitted because there's no space in the institutions.

How about a class room or lecture theatre meant for 80 students being used for 2,000 students in a single lecture ?

With e-learning, every student has access to education from the comfort of their homes. With e-learning, education in Nigeria would be improved at the rate of 10,000% and the rate at which high numbers of people become educated would be more and faster.

This will be effective if the problems of electricity, internet services and poverty is solve. Hence, our government has the large chunks of the responsibility to make it work and work better. 

E-learning is the way to go. ASUU and its members should embrace e-learning now before its too late. 

The lecturers should train and upgrade themselves to be fit for e-lecturing. It's happening in other countries, it is happening here already, it can be better. 

The lecturers should update themselves with the necessary soft skills and expertise to deliver well to their students via e-learning.
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Author: verified_user

Olatuja Gabriel is a volunteer of International Human Rights Commission, (IHRC) Special Monitoring Mission (SMM) to West Africa. He is an author, Radio/TV broadcaster and journalist and publisher. He's a chemical, Process and Safety Engineer. He has over a decade experience in Manufacturing Industry, Chemical Engineering and Renewable Energy. Gabriel is an Information Technology investor. He's founder of Virtual Doctors Limited that makes healthcare available to all via digital technology. He is a Chartered Customer Relationship Manager and a Business and Marketing Strategist. He is a pastor at Opulent Christian Assembly Inc., Nigeria. He also serves as a musician at Loveworld (Christ Embassy). He enjoys Playing Saxophone and Singing for God.

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