One of the core responsibilities and pride of every higher institution is to always satisfy the various tastes and demands of both her internal and external public by ensuring that progress in all ramifications is achieved and maintained among all odds through the management’s efforts.
Kogi State University, now officially known as Prince Abubakar Audu University (PAAU), has over the years been known for excellent academic services both in character and in learning and this has always been achieved by the institution’s management through proper planning, organization, meaningful decisions and express execution of planned programmes.
With evidence, this selfless efforts of the institution’s management in corroboration with the state government under different administrations has made the institution to be admired and respected among other institutions, and has once earned the institution an appellation of being the 1st best state university and 7th among all the universities in Nigeria as ranked by the National Universities Commission (NUC) in 2011; the same year the institution produced the best law student in law school. This wasn’t a surprise but a fulfillment of the blueprint of academic excellent written and documented in the institution’s vision.
However, in recent time, the applauded competence of the institution is being exposed to criticism and questioning as some decisions which many has considered futile is being taken by the institution’s management as a remedy to the recent universal pandemic that has caused total shutdown of every sector including the educational sector.
The sudden introduction of technological advancement known as “E-Learning” in the institution that helps to break geographical boundaries, keep social distance and facilitates mass but door-stepping academic delivery to students in different locations, is actually a perfect remedy that should be cheerfully embraced and celebrated as regards to the directives of the Federal government in relation to the prevention of Covid-19 pandemic but such idea becomes unproductive when some factors are not being considered.
This therefore explains that, it will be an effort in futility when the institution’s management goes ahead to formulate a circumstanced policy as a substitute to meet up and complement the school academic calendar without first carrying out a proper research in order to know the adequacies and inadequacies that will be involved.
Record has shown that Prince Abubakar Audu University has over twenty-three thousand students who are believed to be the major beneficiary of this recent technological development called “E-Learning” but what becomes the viability of this development when the school management cannot ascertain and categorically tell the numbers of students that will 70% benefit from this development?
Research has shown that most technological facilities can only be useful when powered by electricity, and electricity supply in this part of the world especially in all the 21 local governments of the state where most of the students reside as indigenes is epileptic in nature, this has automatically posed a threat to the viability of the idea of ‘E-learning.”
For example, in some rural areas of Kogi state like Anyigba where the institution itself is situated, power supply is always a mystery as the area only sees light once in a blue moon; in that case, what becomes the fate of the students living in that area as regards to the benefit of the idea of “E-Learning?”
The popular saying; “All fingers are not equal” which literary means men by nature are better than the other in terms of standard of living should also be considered, as only few parents can urgently afford those E-learning facilities for their children in this present economic breakdown, while a host of others cannot afford.
The management before formulating the idea of E-learning should be able to provide an answer to the question that in the case of those students whose parents cannot urgently afford them those E-learning facilities, how will they benefit from this idea? This is why proper research is necessary so that the school management aside the issue of power supply, will know the numbers of students that have smart phones or laptops to access E-learning, so as not to cause unnecessary knowledge gap among students of the same class.
In relation to the above paragraph, every smart phone and laptop is believed to be capable of accessing the internet but this is only possible with a subscription fee called “Data”. Assuming 80% of parents can urgently afford their children with those E-learning facilities, can 50% of those parents constantly buy data for the students to always stay online to benefit from this idea? Or has the school management made provision for that
Research has shown that smart phones and laptops with loaded subscriptions can only be enjoyed effectively with the help of an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and it has been observed that in this part of the world, internet service is as epileptic in nature as power supply due to its constant fluctuation which many a time vary from one geographical location to another.
Aside that, it is believed that what an individual is exposed to or trained with, over time becomes his/her culture and it will take another effort to jettison that culture and imbibe a new culture for effective living. The students of Kogi state has over the years been exposed to face-to-face learning which give them the room to physically ask questions for clarifications, interact with lecturers, argue base on perceptions, share knowledge and ideas about certain things, and this has been confirmed to be the most effective form of learning for every category of student most especially in the area of science where practical is inevitable. But in the case of E-learning, this might be difficult to achieve as a lecturer only addresses the students through a recorded video clip; losing that physical affection and this might affect the student’s academic performance.
It becomes obvious that these factors and among other factors have posed a threat of “deadly arrival” to the idea of E-learning in the institution. Technological advancement like in other countries is more suitable and accepted for easy learning only when it is convenient for all categories of students, including the lecturers.
If Prince Abubakar Audu University must maintain her pride of academic excellent and qualitative distinction of Knowledge for Self Reliance among other universities, then, there is a need for the management to re-strategize and come up with a more viable and convenient idea that at least 70% of the students will be a beneficiary.
– Ozovehe Moses writes from Lokoja, Kogi State.
