Infrastructural decay exists in almost all sectors of Nigeria. The same rot seeps through the academic system and has today touched the very soul of the university system of the country: its information and communication technology. In this report, Head, Education Desk, IYABO LAWAL, explores what makes a difference between government-owned universities and their private counterparts.
Since 2015, everything and anything that could go wrong in Nigeria’s education system has gone wrong and the whipping boy is Adamu Adamu, who has presided over a taciturn education ministry.

The rot in Nigeria’s education system goes beyond its dwindling standards, it sinks to the bottom of ICT infrastructures, both software and hardware, and that deficiency has become too telling with many Nigerian university students feeling the angst of arrested development occasioned by the COVID-19 crisis.

While many private universities have carried on with academic activities, and even conducted examinations, Nigeria’s (federal and state) government-owned universities have crumbled under the weight of the coronavirus pandemic. And the difference is that: private universities have the infrastructure for virtual (online) education while the public ones do not.
Advertisement

Advertisement

As far back as 2014, Local Area Network (LAN) is commonplace in the Nigerian tertiary institutions and can be a good platform for distributing and disseminating instructional materials.

In view of that, a 2014 study by researchers at the Covenant University proposed to improve the quality of academics through the online provision of learning resources based on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS); wired and wireless access to contents and availability of the system 24/7.

The system, according to the study’s authors, is based on third party software or FOSS called phpBB and Windows 2003 Server Active Directory Services. Both are installed and configured on an intranet. It has a discussion forum that is accessed through Hypertext Transfer Protocol using a web browser; and directory services for files/folders upload and download based on a set of privilege levels in Discretionary Access Control List (DACL) as a way of improving security.

The system led to the development of a virtual campus in one of the private universities and helped to improve the quality of teaching by making lecture notes available on the intranet, lecturer-student interaction, accessibility to teaching materials, and reduce student’s idle time.
“The system helps in no small measure to correct the problems plaguing the educational sector, such as examination malpractice, decline standards of education and cultism, as students are gainfully engaged in academic and social activities,” said the authors.
Advertisement

Advertisement

Experts noted that the creation of a virtual campus would enhance the level of e-participation, and e-readiness of the graduate for the employment market. In particular, it bridges the divide between the developed and the developing nations.

It is no wonder that Nigerian private universities now continue with their academic session despite the COVID-19 disruption. However, publicly-owned universities are largely dinosaur-years behind. Even the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) has cancelled all academic activities because it does not have the infrastructure to move its traditional functions online.

Adamu is not even losing sleep over the anathema that no Federal Government-owned university has moved its educational operations online. And state governments and their education commissioners are not pretending to have the online education system backbone.

In countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, South Korea, and China, among others, online university education has continued seamlessly. For one thing, stakeholders in the education sector in Nigeria argued that it would be unfair to compare Nigeria to developed countries. They are not further from the truth considering the hurdles that such a move would have to resolve.

They present a litany of stumbling blocks: epileptic power supply, erratic Internet network, and limited access and penetration of the Internet; universities being ill-equipped for online education because of lack of infrastructure for the purpose, and the poverty level of many students.

They said, and for good reasons, that most students in publicly-owned universities cannot afford a laptop, a smartphone, or a table.
Last June, the spokesman for the National Universities Commission (NUC), Ibrahim Yakassai, made a telling disclosure about the government-owned universities when he said: “Even if the (government-owned) universities have the capacity for online learning, most of the students don’t have smartphones. The issue is not only about the universities, but a national issue.”

There have been reports touting the so-called ingenuity of universities like the University of Ibadan (UI) and Lagos State University (LASU) conducting “online” academic activities.
Advertisement

Advertisement

But Yakassai pooh-poohed, saying: “Some universities claimed they are having lectures online since coronavirus distorted the learning system. As far as we know, most universities, especially government-owned, cannot give the lectures online, except for a few private universities.” He explained that the institutions might be doing “some interactions” via WhatsApp and Telegram.

“Online classes,” he explained, “are given in modules, and it requires expertise to develop the curriculum.”That is not all, according to Yakassai, as he pointed out: “Most students in public universities live in rural areas. Some do not have access to the Internet and the students will need to use applications such as Skype and Zoom for online learning.”

The grim reality, said the NUC, is that Nigerian students in government-owned universities would have to face the reality that by the time the COVID-19 crisis is resolved, they would have lost at least a semester or a session. Their academic learning is paused indefinitely.

“So, the students will start from where they stopped once school resumes,” the NUC spokesman added. “They have a syllabus to complete and they must complete it. The online lectures are different from face-to-face (lectures). It (online learning) has its own style. The internet must be sufficient. Students must have ‘browsing’ phones that can be used in their online classes.”

World over, it is admitted that online education involves a lot of expertise, especially on the part of the school and lecturers to set up instructional materials.

Thinking of a way forward while the public higher institutions are still hopelessly stuck in the present, the NUC official stated that tertiary institutions had been told to explore the possibility of online learning, looking at what they require to start in case the country faces another COVID-19-like situation in the future.

On April 2, Adamu met 237 vice chancellors, rectors, and provosts and the focus of that meeting was on virtual learning, since all tertiary institutions were on lockdown amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“We cannot be held down by COVID-19,” stated Adamu matter-of-factly. “We have to deploy all e-platforms to keep our universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, and other schools open.”
Advertisement

Advertisement

That “virtual learning environment” has remained a talk and a pipe dream. Adamu and the government he represents have been accused of paying lip service to improve basic infrastructure such as hostels and others that are critical on university campuses.

“There is no Nigerian (government-owned) university today that is operating any form or model of e-learning because of poor internet access, high bandwidth costs, and irregular power supply. On what infrastructure does the minister expect the online delivery to run?” the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) queried. The union should know better.

The Economist Intelligence Unit (The EIU) is the research and analysis division of The Economist Group. Its ‘preparing for disruption technological readiness ranking’ provides comprehensive medium and long-term forecasts for 82 of the world’s largest economies, including Nigeria.

Access to the internet, for which we look at internet usage and mobile phone subscriptions, the digital economy infrastructure, (looking at e-commerce, e-government, and cyber-security) and openness to innovation form the trinity of the ranking in which Nigeria ranked 79 (between 2013 and 2017) and 80 (between 2018 and 2022) among nations in terms of institutional e-readiness, the ability of a nation’s institutions to use ICT to achieve their mission and vision.

The most populous country on the African continent only ranked above Angola (81; 81) and Libya (81; 82). Nigeria’s e-readiness ranking highlights the need to seek innovative solutions to improve ICT usage.

Even the six-year experience of the University of Jos to implement an e-learning initiative in Mathematics with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Hewlett Packard, and the World Bank-sponsored Science and Technology Education Post-Basic (STEPB) project did not provide any object lessons for the country.

The United Kingdom has a long tradition of innovation in education with its open university and distance learning being a model for many other open and distance learning (ODL) institutions.

Since the mid-90s, the UK has elaborated strategies and action plans to support ICT in education as seen in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England, making it easy for universities in those lands to switch almost seamlessly from physical presence to online academic activities and classes.

In fact, universities in developed schools have begun advertising for a new session via virtual touring of their schools. Nigerian public universities do not have such capacity yet.

According to a research study, ‘Challenges of e-learning in Nigerian university education based on the experience of developed countries,’ what Nigerian universities can learn from the experiences of developed countries on e-learning could be summarised into four items: funding, electricity, awareness/training, and motivation.
“More fingers are pointing to the Federal Government of Nigeria on these issues,” said authors of the study. Therefore, the government policies and programmes of e-learning in Nigerian university education should be financially supported by substantial public funding. On the issue of funding, the Federal Government should take a bold step to yield to the recommendation of the UNESCO which prescribe 26 per cent of the annual budget for education,” they added.

Some stakeholders, in their assessment of the sub-sector, said public universities lack the infrastructure, funding, flexibility and personnel to make a switch to full online teaching at short notice.

They noted that private universities, compared to their public counterparts, are more modern in terms of laboratory facilities, ICT infrastructure and other teaching equipment, and are more flexible in their governance and administrative structures.

The Vice Chancellor, Technical University, Ibadan, Prof. Ayobami Salami, said it is important that Nigerian tertiary institutions invest in technologies to meet up with the challenge.

“We cannot be talking about industrial revolution if we don’t invest. By now, we should be able to deploy our learning management system in such a way that students can learn from home. Let’s not forget that the clock does not stop ticking …. Why then should learning stop because of the pandemic? By the time the pandemic stops, we are coming back to where we stopped, whereas foreign institutions have gone to achieve the necessary.

“It is not magic; we must put a lot of machinery in place. We need to create an enabling environment within our tertiary institutions, the same phone used by students and lecturers will simply serve this function. Because the environment has not been created, students don’t see the need to use their phone beyond social media activities, Prof Salami added.
On his part, the Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, emphasised the need for training and change of mindset on the part of lecturers.

“We need to invest in infrastructure – perhaps lectures will be delivered through Skype or teleconferences. Lecturers can even upload notes online and students will download for assignment.

“It requires training and retraining the lecturers to be more familiar with technologies. Some professors are ‘computer immigrants.’ So, they need to be updated so that in this period of the pandemic, a lot can still be achieved in our schools,” he said.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/guardian.ng/features/education/when-will-public-varsities-embrace-e-learning/amp

Lalasticlala

They're not ready. The only thing they fight for is their salaries. Even their current existing infrastructure are not maintained how much more adding sophisticated ones.

*

flyingpig:
See ASUU na, they are not engaging FG now on the issue of e-learning. They are only enjoying at home while collecting salaries. The issue of their strike which they are on till now is majorly hinged on arrears, promotion and personal benefits. I will never accept within me that ASUU cares about the students. Just a selfish body promoting the welfare of lecturers.

Nigeria is built on an unsustainable model. The country is worse than any pyramid scheme out there. Government invest billions in sectors it would never reap any profit from.

This is the reason I have always canvassed for privatization across board.

Imagine this, Oyedepo would have to pay hundreds of millions of naira in salary every month. He knows this, so he has to force the lecturers to think and innovate. The e-learning thing is a must for every lecturer to partake. Less he would waste money.

Government has been paying a minimum of 30 billion naira per month to pay staff of universities since this lockdown began.

How can I be your employer, paying you 30 billion a month and you are giving me stories that you don't have infrastructure for e-learning. This can only happen in public sector!

HigherEd, are u sure of that N30b? That's huge if true o.

If we talk further now, some may tag us agents of the church system and get defensive.

HigherEd:


Nigeria is built on an unsustainable model. The country is worse than any pyramid scheme out there. Government invest billions in sectors it would never reap any profit from.

This is the reason I have always canvassed for privatization across board.

Imagine this, Oyedepo would have to pay hundreds of millions of naira in salary every month. He knows this, so he has to force the lecturers to think and innovate. The e-learning thing is a must for every lecturer to partake. Less he would waste money.

Government has been paying a minimum of 30 billion naira per month to pay staff of universities since this lockdown began.

How can I be your employer, paying you 30 billion a month and you are giving me stories that you don't have infrastructure for e-learning. This can only happen in public sector!

I support you, but I'm not for the privatization of all our public institutions. There is stoic poverty in Nigeria and 80% students won't afford the exorbitant tuition fee of these public universities if they were to be privatized. That would only increase the number of school drop-outs and mass illiteracy, very indecent development.

Government should just force them to acquire necessary infrastructure vital for e-learning. The onus of data for distant streaming lays on students. But if palliatives been reach everybody they would have been able to access.

CodeTemplar:
HigherEd, are u sure of that N30b? That's huge if true o.

If we talk further now, some may tag us agents of the church system and get defensive.

Well we do UI's annual wage bill from govt is about 10 billion naira per annum at N1 Billion/annum. ABU is higher. UNN is about same with UI, although a little lesser. Other Federal Universities maybe little lesser but no Federal varsity can be less than 500 million naira per annum. Remember we have 44 federal varsities, federal polytechnics and colleges of education.

Estimates puts federal wagebill on tertiary education at about 27 - 33 billion naira on a minimum.

Each state university gulps between 300 - 600 million naira max. On an average you are having states combined pay about 16 billion naira a month.


The figures are distressing!

I like to just talk about something that affects the adoption of e-learning generally.

E-learning is based on internet access. Internet access in turn based on network and internet enabled devices. Right now, the network side of things in Nigeria and sub Sahara Africa isn't on the level of more advanced nations. We are far geographically from the core of the internet or internet backbones. Internet backbones are like the point at which strong and latent internet access exist and these geographical points are mostly in clusters around the developed nations. The end product of far internet backbones is expensive internet cost data volume.

If I want to access a file of 1GB in a server that's linked by a backbone in London. My network provide or internet service provider (ISP) will have to created a connection medium from Nigeria down to London, but another man in Manchester, will only have to his ISP needing to connect Manchester to London. That's a few hundred miles as against my own thats thousands of miles away from London.

This has made data more expensive in Middle region of Africa.
It is only natural that e-learning which depends on affordable data suffers as a result. The solution goes beyond will and commitment of govt. A govt that pays around N30b isn't an irresponsible on as ASUU like to impress us. We need to ask honest question and match them with honest answers.

flyingpig:
I support you, but I'm not for the privatization of all our public institutions. There is stoic poverty in Nigeria and 80% students won't afford the exorbitant tuition fee of these public universities if they were to be privatized. That would only increase the number of school drop-outs and mass illiteracy, very indecent development.

Government should just force them to acquire necessary infrastructure vital for e-learning. The onus of data for distant streaming lays on students. But if palliatives been reach everybody they would have been able to access.

You see there is the problem. Universities aren't secondary schools, they ought to be a able to figure themselves out without waiting for direction from the ministry of education. They are even on strike as Covid19 is raging.

If ministry tells them one thing to do, they would start shouting that universities are supposed to be autonomous or self governing. And they have the biggest leverage, they can shut down the NUS with millions of students who are eligible voters directing anger against the government. The government quickly backs down and the status quo remains.

Many private universities are not yet getting the e-learning thing right either, as the pandemic caught them off guard. But they are readjusting and getting better, and if another pandemic happens again it won't catch them off guard.

flyingpig:
I support you, but I'm not for the privatization of all our public institutions. There is stoic poverty in Nigeria and 80% students won't afford the exorbitant tuition fee of these public universities if they were to be privatized. That would only increase the number of school drop-outs and mass illiteracy, very indecent development.

Government should just force them to acquire necessary infrastructure vital for e-learning. The onus of data for distant streaming lays on students. But if palliatives been reach everybody they would have been able to access.

The bitter truth is that if you want better public institutions,you'll have to privatize them.
Nigerian government doesn't have enough funds to build world class universities.
That is why private schools will always be better than government schools in terms of infrastructure.

Alexaonfleek:
The bitter truth is that if you want better public institutions,you'll have to privatize them.
Nigerian government doesn't have enough funds to build world class universities.
That is why private schools will always be better than government schools in terms of infrastructure.

they do joor. Do you know education sector is less than 13% of our budget ? That they don't choose to capture education significantly in budget doesn't mean they don't have enough funds to do it.

HigherEd:


You see there is the problem. Universities aren't secondary schools, they ought to be a able to figure themselves out without waiting for direction from the ministry of education. They are even on strike as Covid19 is raging.

If ministry tells them one thing to do, they would start shouting that universities are supposed to be autonomous or self governing. And they have the biggest leverage, they can shut down the NUS with millions of students who are eligible voters directing anger against the government. The government quickly backs down and the status quo remains.

Many private universities are not yet getting the e-learning thing right either, as the pandemic caught them off guard. But they are readjusting and getting better, and if another pandemic happens again it won't catch them off guard.

I agree with this. As regards to your first paragraph, everything in Nigeria is bastardized. We play politics with everything. ASUU too plays politics using students.

Alexaonfleek:
The bitter truth is that if you want better public institutions,you'll have to privatize them.
Nigerian government doesn't have enough funds to build world class universities.
That is why private schools will always be better than government schools in terms of infrastructure.

A world class uni is actually 5% funds and 95% sincerity of purpose. Look at CU. Their buildings cost less than N500m most times but same goes for higher in public sector because egunje ( kickbacks ) The fund going into public schools is already at an impressive level. What we need is management and not more of what is being wasted - money.

flyingpig:
they do joor. Do you know education sector is less than 13% of our budget ? That they don't choose to capture education significantly in budget doesn't mean they don't have enough funds to do it.

They really don't have enough funds.
Compare US budget for education with that if Nigeria
No US is even too far.
Compare Ghana's budget for education to that of Nigeria.
And I'm not talking about the percentage.
13% for education may be a bit low,but not too low.
I have a cousin studying medicine in Hungary.
She.goes to a public university there,and she's on a partial scholarship.
Even with that,she pays about 3.5 million per session at least,and that's only school fees.
Not to talk of accommodation and other expenses in school.
That 3.5 million she pays for a year abroad will comfortably sponsor a medical student in Nigeria for 6 years.
My point is, education isn't cheap.
I'm not trying to make excuses for ASUU or FG because those ones are another problem too.
If there wasn't so much corruption in ASUU and Nigerian government,it would have been a bit better.
But it won't change the fact that we don't have enough money for education.

cc codetemplar

Alexaonfleek:
They really don't have enough funds.
Compare US budget for education with that if Nigeria
No US is even too far.
Compare Ghana's budget for education to that of Nigeria.
And I'm not talking about the percentage.
13% for education may be a bit low,but not too low.
I have a cousin studying medicine in Hungary.
She.goes to a public university there,and she's on a partial scholarship.
Even with that,she pays about 3.5 million per session at least,and that's only school fees.
Not to talk of accommodation and other expenses in school.
That 3.5 million she pays for a year abroad will comfortably sponsor a medical student in Nigeria for 6 years.
My point is, education isn't cheap.
I'm not trying to make excuses for ASUU or FG because those ones are another problem too.
If there wasn't so much corruption in ASUU and Nigerian government,it would have been a bit better.
But it won't change the fact that we don't have enough money for education.

cc codetemplar

I still don't agree with you. Nigeria and Hungary which has more wealth?

flyingpig:
I still don't agree with you. Nigeria and Hungary which has more wealth?

Even in rich countries,school fees is still expensive.
What the students do if they can't afford it is that they either apply for scholarship or they apply for loans from the government.
Education for tertiary institution no be beans anywhere.

Alexaonfleek:
Even in rich countries,school fees is still expensive.
What the students do if they can't afford it is that they either apply for scholarship or they apply for loans from the government.
Education for tertiary institution no be beans anywhere.

at least they have good economy that ensures a large percentage of their society is well to do.

Alexaonfleek:
Even in rich countries,school fees is still expensive.
What the students do if they can't afford it is that they either apply for scholarship or they apply for loans from the government.
Education for tertiary institution no be beans anywhere.

and how do they repay these millions of loans? By graduating and selling wig on instagram? Or by selling okrika on whatsapp status? Please how do they repay these loans in Nigeria's horrendous economy. This comes down to what I said earlier; at least get a good economy for a large percent of the society before attempting to privatize education. Otherwise it'll be a vicious cycle of debt ridden graduates that can't offset their debt because there are non-existent jobs or they are getting horrendous poorly paid jobs.

Heck, an MSc friend of mine got a 30k/monthly job. Masters graduate. How much was his school fees for the masters programme? Over 70k!

flyingpig:
and how do they repay these millions of loans? By graduating and selling wig on instagram? Or by selling okrika on whatsapp status? Please how do they repay these loans in Nigeria's horrendous economy. This comes down to what I said earlier; at least get a good economy for a large percent of the society before attempting to privatize education. Otherwise it'll be a vicious cycle of debt ridden graduates that can't offset their debt because there are non-existent jobs or they are getting horrendous poorly paid jobs.

Heck, an MSc friend of mine got a 30k/monthly job. Masters graduate. How much was his school fees for the masters programme? Over 70k!

this is really bad.............