President Goodluck Jonathan has said most of the recommendations and fall out of the 2013 National Summit on Education,hosted by the Federal Government were already being implemented, nationwide.
He said such implementation accounted for the establishment of additional universities in each of the country’s geo-political zones to boost access to tertiary education as well as allocation of funds for research and implementation for the Needs Assessment of Nigerian Universities.
Jonathan, gave this disclosure on Tuesday in Abuja, while unveiling the Nigerian Research and Education Network (NgREN)broadband project executed by the National Universities Commission.
The internet broadband which is to promote linkages and collaboration between the research community, industry, government and other international research and education communities especially among Nigerian universities is expected to be strengthened by the Ministry of Communications Technology,the Nigerian Information Technology Development Agency, NITDA,the Universal Service Provision Fund, including other stakeholders
Already 29 institutions out of over the 100 Universities in the country have been selected in the pilot scheme.
Jonathan,represented by the Supervising Minister for Education, Nyesom Wike, said government’s massive intervention were already yielding gains which can further be consolidated by all stakeholders.
He said,”We have always recognised the place of an enlightened citizenry in the task of building a vibrant economy needed to entrench equity and social justice in our land.
“We demonstrated this by hosting a national summit on education which I personally chaired. I am pleased to inform you that government has since set in motion the machinery to implement the resolutions of the summit and to achieve its set targets.”
Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Julius Okojie said the project was expected to drive down the exorbitant costs of bandwidth while increasing the capacity of the networked members to deliver world class teaching and research services.
Okojie described the project which was executed in collaboration with the Ministry of Communication Technology, as capital intensive but of tremendous importance to the academic community in Nigeria.
He noted that smaller countries less endowed than Nigeria like Rwanda, Congo, Mozambique, Sudan and Somalia already have thriving research networks aiding their educational development.
Presently, NUC has solicited the assistance of the Federal Government to expand the scope of the NgREN project across other universities in the country.
With NgREN, students across the universities can receive or join any lecture via video and tele conferencing in any part of the world.
