The solution should be total review of the whole educational syllabus in Nigeria, right from pri to the university level. As for the computer science syllabus, the primary school pupils should be introduced to basic computing. The secondary school students should be introduced to programs, eg Fotran and basic for jss1. C for jss2 and so on or how they thought will be best. So, by d tym students gets to the uni, it'll be a lil diff.

if u like no go hustle, they here they complain

if u like no go hustle, they here they complain

but he's trying to bring up a point

liaslo***:

but he's trying to bring up a point

i know, all am saying is,making it here ("nairaland" is not the solution

my own opinion is that the university naturally is not the place for in-depth knowledge of any knowledge whatsoever
the university is a learning environment in which research on all areas is made.
so for one to become a programmer, one needs to work externally i mean read books, frequent Internet use etc

eyanpataki:

my own opinion is that the university naturally is not the place for in-depth knowledge of any knowledge whatsoever
the university is a learning environment in which research on all areas is made.
so for one to become a programmer, one needs to work externally i mean read books, frequent Internet use etc

u spoke my mind

I fear that we ( by 'we' I mean the participants in this post) are over-simplifying the issue/problem with the Nigerian University System (and believe me the problem is with the whole Nigerian University System no just the Computing Science departments). The rot of corruption and the lure of the easy life has eaten into our moral values and absolutely destroyed our Educational system and our University system, being the zenith of said Educational system has felt the most brunt of the devaluation.
The foundation of every University system is the drive for research, to create something out of a single idea, to challenge existing knowledge and establishments by thought-provoking assessments and critique.

But here is the catch, Research of any sort is hard work and for 'Scientific' research (by scientific I mean the creation of new proofs/substances/software/hardware using established norms/works) I fear the work is probably doubled. For a society that seems to fear intellectuals and reward mediocrity, research is damn near impossible.

Why would a Computer Science department be accepting dissertations and courses in BASIC Fortran in 2004?
Why would a Computer Science department be teaching Undergrads the intricacies of creating Databases with MS-Access?
Why would a computer Science graduate only understand how to use MS- Windows?
Why would a Computer Science degree that does not involve Theoretical Computing have 90% Mathematics in the 1st year curriculum?

I know why. It is because it will require a lot more work to do anything else, to do the right thing!

The degree in computer Science in Nigeria is only a reflection of the holy trinity of its participants-- The environment, the students and the lecturers.

All school systems take you through different generation of programming languages from 1st to 5th. So you get have an idea and how they work. Fundamentally, 1st generation programming languages are relevant to you as a computer science student.

I don't think anything is wrong if your friend is taught PASCAL or FORTRAN in school as an undergraduate. I was taught too in 200 level during my days in school. After all, a computer scientist must know the in&out of programming languages not just the recent ones. I studied computer science here in nigeria and i went through these courses.

All Reply well said But to be sincere no Computer Science Student will say He/She did not learn
anything while in that Institute.

Pls Friend lets Appreciate what we have, but if you are not satisfy think of how you will improve it on your own part

Sir Welly:

All school systems take you through different generation of programming languages from 1st to 5th. So you get have an idea and how they work. Fundamentally, 1st generation programming languages are relevant to you as a computer science student.

I don't think anything is wrong if your friend is taught PASCAL or FORTRAN in school as an undergraduate. I was taught too in 200 level during my days in school. After all, a computer scientist must know the in&out of programming languages not just the recent ones. I studied computer science here in nigeria and i went through these courses.

I am not saying do not learn the fundamentals of programming! But I insist that PASCAL or FORTRAN are not ideal for teaching students programming in a University, not even the fundamental. If you disagree, then why don't we just go back and teach students BASIC and scar them for life

I feel that if you are going to teach students the fundamentals, you can group these fundamentals into the following categories with their corresponding programming languages:
a) Structured of Computer Programs: C/C++/Java/Python
b) Object Oriented Programming : Smalltalk/Java/C++
c) Network Programming : C
d) Distributed Systems: Java/C++/Erlang
e) Algorithms & Data Structures:  C/C++
f) Operating Systems: C/C++
g) Functional Programming: Lisp/Forte/Erlang

Someone that learns Pascal in 200 Level will most probably struggle with Object Oriented programming in the future and tats before we reach the behemoth that is functional programming, even I still struggle with Forte till this day( I am just beginning to learn Erlang, God help me).

I think we will be dishonest to ourselves if we say that the reason Pascal is taught in our universities is because of the desire to teach the fundamentals of programming rather than the truth, which is, that PASCAL is the language that our lecturers and the computers at their disposal are comfortable with.

This is what I believe in.

@kanirip

you might find it difficult to understand except you were once a computer sc/eng. student. No lecturer can runaway from teaching generation of programming languages without mentioning those old languages. if i may ask, what is your course of study?

i got my bsc computer science from one of the private universities in
nigeria, and i can say they taught me well

I am a 300L CSC student in one of our Govt owned Unis from my experience lecturers are only ood in QBASIC My first programming course was QBASIC in 200 level first semester than last semester we did C++ ( so they say) but it was very very bad the lecturer knew nothing he was using a text published in 2002. I went online got recent books and thats what I am still doing. Me I mostly believe I am just there for the paper not for the knowledge because they have little or nothing to offer.

Summary: Dnt depend of wat the lecturers say most are already obsolete there are lots of free materials online. Currently I am learning Qt from an online forum.

if u want to learn old things go and learn anthropology or history but not computer science most of the Api are updated everyday

I decided to choose National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) for my degree programme because I know that like the so call conventional universities, they have nothing to offer when it comes to updated practicals. But NOUN is better because I have time for real practical somewhere else since it's a part time programme. But other schools, chei, they spend the whole of their time on campus, only to come out as read and pass graduate. I know I've made a right choice.

Sir Welly:

@kanirip

you might find it difficult to understand except you were once a computer sc/eng. student. No lecturer can runaway from teaching generation of programming languages without mentioning those old languages. if i may ask, what is your course of study?

I did Computer Science for 2 years in Akoka before travelling to the UK to restart and finish my BSc. The reality is that even if some of our graduates ARE good they may never achieve their potential, because a system that places you in a class of over 500 students in a room not designed for more than 80 students doesn't want you to give your best. It wants you to give their least!

Even if you insist on teaching Generation languages, PASCAL and Fortran are not foundation Programming Languages. Foundation programming Languages are Assembly, C, Smalltalk and Ada, maybe even Lisp. These languages introduce new concepts in programming. But not Pascal and Fortran.

Even in my UK University, I had a lot of arguments with our lecturers insisting that Comp Sci students ( considering I never really spoke with my lecturers in UNILAG this was a HUGE step) be introduced to more in-depth topics in Computing such as Operating Systems and Algorithms ( which other top Unis were teaching as part of their undergraduate program). they always declined saying that while me and some of my classmates maybe be OK with the material, most of the class would struggle as those topics were very technical. They did not want to increase the already high drop out rate in the department. I had to research these topics on my own!

Now, what worries me is that many MSc. students that come out of Nigerian Universities ( and some foreign ones) do not even understand the concept of a DBMS , talk less of an Operating System. I once met a woman , whom while claiming that she had 9 years of experience with Oracle, insisted that MySQL was a 'play-thing used on the internet'. Nigerian IT Specialists are to uni-directional and it starts from their educational system.

How sad,

@kanirip

after one has programmed consistently or haphazardly for say 10 years
maybe less won't he be in position to grasp the technicalities in the very technical courses?
like operating systems and algorithms.

if you are taught in fortran and you dont learn how to code C on your own, shame on you.

if you are not taught a jot of maths in school and refuse to master statistics, probability and calculus after leaving. shame on you.

if you never wrote one line of code in school and you refuse to do any projects because of percieved incompetence. shame on you.

if you left without a certification and still refuse to do some . shame on you.

in essence, its all in your hands.

kodewrita:

if you are taught in fortran and you dont learn how to code C on your own, shame on you.

if you are not taught a jot of maths in school and refuse to master statistics, probability and calculus after leaving. shame on you.

if you never wrote one line of code in school and you refuse to do any projects because of percieved incompetence. shame on you.

if you left without a certification and still refuse to do some . shame on you.

in essence, its all in your hands.

GBAM!!!!!!!!!

See Nigerian Grads COMplaint After Poor Result, (3rd Class, Pass) haba

Had background programming b4 going into a 9ja uni. and i was told by some guys outside that we were going to be doing pascal, that scared da shit outta me but when i got in it was iff. hey i dont like d system all that u do lot of maths general sciences which include history nationalism e.t.c nd feels like ur head is going to blow but thats the beginning. on the long run you are going to be doing OOP WEB DESIGN (DREAM CS, HTML CSS JS PHP) apache dbms data comms. and networking os designs and arcs. also introduction to some imperative languages, The system is not good YES but not as bad as projected,

PASCAL WADDA HECK!!!!!!!!! which comp. sci. stud. is offering dat may be there is a mix up, d course could be under the dept but not for its student defntly. may be for maths and education student

Interesting thread.

More knowledge/exposure is needed.

This thread shouldn't die just like that.

kayalcomp: I studied Computer Science. The little practicals i know was gotten through my exrtra effort outside school. Studying Computer Science in Nigeria can be made meaningful IF all Computer Science graduates are compelled to go to institute like NIIT after graduation compulsorily like lawyer, doctors do. And government should try to strenghtened the NIIT. THAT IS THE ONLY SOLUTION TO THIS PROBLEM.

I am a full blown graduate of computer science and I totally disagree. I learnt java on my own(though in UNIBEN we were taught. C++). We were taught computer architecture but I did research and found out for myself real practical(and modern might I add) applications of the different systems of architecture. The point I am trying to raise is that, if you desire to practice as a computer scientist in this country the University system isn't an issue. In any case it will be unfair to compare government universitiess in Nigeria that don't have autonomy over its own systems to foriegn universities that can so easily forge partnership with corporate bodies where they can fund departments thru faculties. While the department trains people with skills to meet the demands of workplace environments of such corporate bodies and receive automatic preference for employment. That can't work here because the current structure in Federal and state schools don't support it. This is what ASUU has listed as points of protest since the days of President obasanjo, autonomy.I will say that some universities are doing a Good job upgrading their curricullum to meet local challenges but if you really did your research before you sought to do a degree in any school whether Nigeria or abroad, you already have 50% of what you seek via certifictaion. This is not to underscore it importance because the chief aim of certification is safety but it is not a law that you must be certified to get the best outta computer science degrees, the most important thing is if I give you a task whether networking, programming, hardwiring certification or no certification can you do it?

captainhsi: i agree with everyone's view but Angelchyke pascal programming should not be a yardstick for judgeing.It may seem old fashioned but i tell it's services is still requied in some quaters most especially scientific research programming.An example is CERN-world's largest nuclear&particle research lab.-they still makes use of pascal.

There's nothing wrong with pascal but it is a very old language just like fortran, this is mainly due to the fact that it hasn't really been developed which could be because most developers don't make libraries for it. CERN mainly use it for computational stuff, which can be done on any language. If you want to go into software development and mobile app development then learn Java, C++ C and PHP. You could learn these on your own with a compiler and a book or with youtube videos.

The key to succeeding as a Computer Science student in Nigeria is personal study . I'm a young female in my third year studying Computer Science at a university in the US. Even here, the only way you can succeed and be at the top of your career is to gain knowledge beyond the 4 walls of the classroom.
I enjoy programming and as a young female, I take pride in what I do .
Some of us do no have the opportunity to go abroad to study and that is totally fine, but in pursuing a CSc degree, you have to love what you do, enjoy it and be a critical thinker. Professors will not teach you everything. They expect you to go back home and do a lot of research. Find out what these top companies are investing in, what programming languages are in high demand, what new technologies are out there.
You have to study on your own to keep your game tight and be marketable after getting your degree.

plz how far futo owerri are good in computer science item of programmer

Why is this thread not on front page.

angelchyke: Sometime ago, last month, a friend of my in the Computer Science came by my place, to visit and you know, "shack garri". AFter he was done, satisfying the whims of his belly, he told me that he just doesn't get. They had been given an assignment in PASCAL programming. This is a guy that started learning programming privately, with C#.

But if I should throw this to the Nigerian community here on Nairaland, what do our universities have to offer us in the study and research of computer science. PASCAL? Can they favourably compete with the foreign counterparts in the other universities. Naija guys and girls abroad, your unprejudiced judgements will go a long way,

Your point of view is naive at best.

Regardless of where you get your degree, you're ultimately on your own until you decide to put the hours into deliberate practice. A lot of us that have bachelors in CS spent hours a day ploughing through documentation we cared for, and applying/subverting the technologies we learned whilst doing so.

You shouldn't so much care about the language you learn. That is wholly irrelevant. Where some languages teach good/bad practices, the medium you're hoping to garner understanding from is the logic behind the design of data structures, and algorithms, and not so much syntactic models of C#, or Python, or Ruby, or Haskell, or Lisp. That's important when you require a mechanism to tailor your specific requirements. Some make this easier for specific needs than others.

Ultimately, a large proportion of Universities teach most things in this specific field, poorly. With poor programmers at the helm. If you want to do well, expand by learning on your own, making your own mistakes and learning from them yourself, instead of keeping up with the syllabi of Universities you don't attend that may or may not contribute to creating better programmers.

plz u want to knwn how far is futo owerri are good in computer science item of programmer

The problem with Nigeria student is that them want to be like white people, don't know that will are better than them.
most student are said that Nigeria university are not good in computer science in aspect of programmer. that many lecture can not taught fortan, student will should remember a topics in physics called machine that say machine can not work 100percentage because of that load ovrcome that fraction meaning that lecture can not give u 100percentage efficiency u have to research, work hard. this is the generation of computer science student dont sleep will have many ways to go, will have to developed our country with the word of computer so that they can remember us in pass.
few said that dont study computer science in Nigeria that our university is too poor, my brother, my sister don prove urself wrong what about some people who can not offer two square mile aday , people who have the talent to develop our county with computer science. schooling abroad is the same thing study here because lecture can not give u 100percentage efficiency u have to work hard, want make them having a good programmer is that they are used human resource in those countries.eye have open. i have a cousin that study electrical electronic in unbein it company him out for IT it say that will Nigeria deceiver ourself. it say that the company is doing him IT the white people connected a series connection him do it,they are many thing they do not kwn how to do. why are will complaining about our school here.