Govt Set New Policies & Deadlines For Universities
"Federal Government yesterday broke the monopoly hitherto enjoyed by Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) in placing candidatesinto the nation's tertiary institutions with a directive that individual universities should further screen candidates recommended to them by JAMB. Minister of Education, Mrs. Chinwe Nora Obaji, at the 7th Joint Consultative meeting of the policy committee on admission into degree-awarding institutions, said the directive is in line with government’s resolve to instill quality through quality admission
Furthermore, the federal government has set a deadline of December
2005 for all universities in Nigeria to open and operate active
websites of their own as well as computerise all processes; course
registration, fees payment, students' records, results and transcripts should be transacted and accessed on-line.This is the basic minimum capability expected of any university n this information age. I honestly see no financial constraints to complying with this directive"
Are these pronouncements from the government realistic?
Govt Set New Policies & Deadlines For Universities
Hi everyone,
First let me start by seeking your indulgence to be part of this forum, eventhough I am not from any of the Universities that form the consortium. I am from Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto.
I wish to comment on the issue of the December 2005 deadline for all Nigerian Universities to start online activities, including admission and registration. While the development is a welcome one, considering the global trend, I think the deadline is not very realistic, if Nigerian Universities are to do a good job of the project. For one, the infrastructure required to achieve this objective is enormous and the funding is practically not there from the Federal Government. So also is the level of skills required from both the staff and students in the Universities.
The attitudes of our local vendors providing these services are also a problem. Most of them are trying to exploit the Universities without giving them the right type of services. Most of these vendors will tell you that they will deploy all the infrastructure required for the services and will collect, say 70% of the revenue generation "forever?". What they usually fail to give are the details in terms of the cost of infrastructure they are deploying, the deployment plans, revenue projections, profit margins and period to recoup the investment. They also do not pay much importance to skills developments for both staff and students. This to me is one of the most important critical success factors.
What then should we do?
I suggest we start talking fast to come up with bench marks to be met by vendors that wish to provide such services. I suggest that the issues mentioned above should form part of the guidelines for the deployment.
Regards,
Chafe
Better to buiild capacity [than set benchmarks for vendors]
Wouldn't it be better to expend our effort in building the capacity to develop and manage our information services, than in developing benchmarks to assess vendors?
These guys go to school somewheres, and we should work to ensure that it would (soon, again) be in ng that Nigerians stay and others come to learn.
ami
Are govt directives realistic?
I think I know why you asked the question, Owen: Govt directives should have been posted on the Ministry's site here http://www.nigeria.gov.ng/fed_min_education.aspx ?
No be so?
ami