Google chairman Eric Schmidt has attacked the country's education system, saying a failure to appreciate the importance of computer science was holding the country back in the digital age.

In a lecture at a broadcasting conference in Edinburgh on Friday, the chairman of the Internet giant accused Britons of "throwing away your great computing heritage" by promoting a separation of arts and sciences in education.

"If I may be so impolite, your track record isn't great," he said.

"The UK is home of so many media-related inventions. You invented photography. You invented TV. You invented computers in both concept and practice.

"Yet today, none of the world's leading exponents in these fields are from the UK."

He said he was shocked that computer science was not taught as standard in British schools, adding: "Your IT curriculum focuses on teaching how to use software, but gives no insight into how it's made."

Schmidt also laughed off criticisms that Google was trying to "take over the world" and planned to make television content on a large scale.

"Trust me, if you gave people at Google free rein to produce TV you'd end up with a lot of bad sci-fi," he said.

Schmidt was the first non-broadcaster to give the landmark lecture at the Media Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, a major event in British broadcasters' diary.

Prominent figures from the broadcasting world have delivered it in the past, including News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch and his son James.

Tsew.

Lol seriously for the past 2 hrs been wondering where i shud move this topic to

I wonder what Eric Schmidt would say about Nigeria's education system, maybe he'll have a pearl or two about our computer science depts as well.
Nigeria will continue to lag behind in innovation and technology until our education is fixed; there are lessons for us from Eric Schmidt's jibe a the UK whom we are a very long way behind.

The solution to our problems is not employing high tech in our class rooms, but how we apply our brains to harness the little finances available to serve us according to our unique [b]cultural [/b]needs.

Without electricity, do you think Studying computer science would be easy? You need ELECTRICITY and AFAIK, when electricity is fixed in that country, a lot would fall into place!

Anyways you should remember that UK is over 200 yrs old, lol and Nigeria is just about 50 ryt?

@Beaf

Right on point. Exactly what I was thinking going through the article. If he thinks UK is behind, what would he think of our beloved naija.

@Fayimora

Electricity is important. But what is most important is philosophy to computer science.

Fayimora:

Without electricity, do you think Studying computer science would be easy? You need ELECTRICITY and AFAIK, when electricity is fixed in that country, a lot would fall into place!

Anyways you should remember that UK is over 200 yrs old, lol and Nigeria is just about 50 ryt?

I know I emphasised that we do things to suit our culture perspective. That perspective should also include our peculiar circumstances, so we could easily replace your mention of electricity with solar energy. All we need do is find innovative ways to look within and we will find that all the answers are freely around us. The sad thing is that the UK is also ahead of us in consumption of solar energy, which should not be.

^
I don't think we lack people who really want to practicalise their solutions. The biggest problem they face is fellow Nigerians and the cynical "shoot your neighbour down" attitude (I've personally been shot down over and over). We need to be able to forge some sort front to overcome such people and take our nation to the height it belongs.

The bad part is that Nigerians don't even know how to protest! Here in the UK, a simple protest solves a lot of problems. Just like omo_to_dun said, the same thing here, they complain that the fees are much, the economy is selfish and bad blah blah blah. I just shut my mouth up and wonder what they would say when they go to Nigeria.

For the 6-7yrs I spent in Nigeria, God knows the only thing that kept me there was the fact that I loved the people and the experience! Very nice and very wicked.lol! serzly, i love Nigerians mehn, simply AWESOME! However, I had to deal with those bloody things called mosquitos, i had to deal with some very ignorant assholes and lots more.

I joined a group of Nigerians last yr and we ended up being banned from the library for 2 weeks, TWICE. hahahha, You know the funniest part of the story, people missed us!

So if Nigerians have all these wonderful mixed qualities, why exactly is that country not going any further? I really dont understand! I mean money aint no problem for that country so what exactly is the problem? Is it just the political aspect?

They really need to stand up and improve, in health and technology specifically!

Fayimora:

The bad part is that Nigerians don't even know how to protest! Here in the UK, a simple protest solves a lot of problems. Just like omo_to_dun said, the same thing here, they complain that the fees are much, the economy is selfish and bad blah blah blah. I just shut my mouth up and wonder what they would say when they go to Nigeria.

how can you protest against an officer u can't put in\out of power and who is not accountable to u? protests work in the west because power lies with the people, and public opinion matters. how many times have nigerian police or soldier shot dead innocent people and nothing comes out of it, not to talk of the almighty government?

as per nepa, we forget that power black-out is an industry in itself in nigeria, people invest money to have the power infrastructure sabotaged so that generator industry will continue to boom. this is exactly how the nigerian economy runs. just think of it: fuel, pure water, manufacturing, textile, etc, they are all delibrately sabotaged so that their paddys will fill-in the needs.

thank god the internet is hosted abroad, or else how man for do na?

^
internet backbone.

okeyxyz:

thank god the internet is hosted abroad, or else how man for do na?

I don't really understand what your'e saying here man.

okeyxyz:

^
internet backbone.

oh. . . right!