Candidates with the intention to cheat during examinations have almost diverted the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board from its primary assignment of administering the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination into an agency of supersleuths as it constantly seeks ways to foil candidates’ attempts at examination malpractices.
But at a recent parley with members of the Nigerian press, JAMB Registrar, Prof Ishaq Oloyede, disclosed that JAMB hopes to include computer studies as a compulsory subject before the end of five years.
In other words, every UTME candidate must take Computer Studies, alongside the English Language and the subjects that are prerequisites to studying the course of his choice in Nigeria’s tertiary institution.
Unfortunately, one couldn’t ask Prof Oloyede to confirm if the Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council was aware of this intention and has bought into it. The microphone did not quite come round before the registrar concluded answering those who were able to ask questions.
But, luckily, the question can be asked here using the auspices of this column. The answer need not be a rejoinder but in the implementation of what must be considered a timely and laudable initiative, JAMB should liaise with NERDC to provide a robust syllabus for Computer Studies ahead of the five-year projected by JAMB.
For those who do not know, NERDC, with enabling Decree (or Act) 53 of 1986, employs a slew of teacher-educators and researchers with a mandate to develop, research and enrich education in Nigeria.
NERDC prepares content for the first nine years of education in Nigeria, viz. Lower Basic Education (Primary 1 to 3), Middle Basic Education (Primary 4 to 6) and Upper Basic Education (JSS 1 to JSS 3).
Happily, compulsory core subjects for Upper Basic Education, or JSS 1 to 3, are the English language; one of Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo languages; Mathematics; Basic Science; Social Studies; Civic Education; Cultural and Creative Arts; Christian Religious Studies; Physical & Health Education; Basic Technology; also includes Computer Science/ICT.
Electives, that is optional courses from which a student must offer one, are Agricultural Science, Home Economics (usually offered by female students), and Business Studies. This way NERDC caters to the preliminary or basic content of the education of Nigerian youths.
If Nigeria is going to log into the digital world that has already defined technology, economics and communication, the time to start is now. “Catch ‘em young,” should not just be a slogan, but an action plan to effectively launch Nigeria into the digital age.
It should be not for nothing that Prof Isa Pantami is Minister of Communication and Digital Economy. Digital or Internet Economy is based on digital computing technologies or the Internet.
It’s the core educational foundation of, not just social media, but also other fields such as fintech, cryptocurrency, android phones, online buying and selling, even electric cars.
Digital technology is a platform that generates, stores, processes and transmits data in terms of positives, represented by the number 1 and negatives, in terms of the number 0.
If you got lost in what you just read, you are in good company. But that is the way the literature on the subject describes it.
Digital technology is faster, carries more data, has clearer and sharper fidelity, is more precise and is transmitted online and in real-time.
Before digital technology, was analogue technology which conveys data as electric signals or impulses of varying frequencies on carrier waves, which was used for telephone and radio transmissions. It is lower in capacity than digital technology.
In addition to getting the buy-in of NERDC, JAMB must also get those of the National Universities Commission and National Board for Technical Education, both its co-parastatals under the Federal Ministry of Education.
While NUC is responsible for managing university education and institutions in Nigeria, NBTE is in charge of Nigeria’s vocational and technical education, which falls outside the purview of the universities.
It would be wonderful if NUC and NBTE would compel the respective higher institutions that they supervise to make computer studies compulsory for all students the same way they make General Studies a non-elective but non-credit course.
Of course, the West African Examination Council and its equivalent, the National Education Council, that respectively conduct the West Africa School Certificate Examination and Basic Education Certification Examination, the high school certificate, must also weigh in.
If computer science becomes a basic prerequisite for admission into higher institutions of learning, Nigeria would have significantly invested in the future of human capital development to run its digital economy of the future.
To borrow from the concept of the learning curve, teaching the kids early should significantly improve their proficiency in the things of the internet. Nigerians, of the future, will have the capability to measure up to their peers in North America, Western Europe and Asia.
For instance, a strong foundation should launch Nigerian kids into the world of coding, which is essentially computer programming, the new game in town, a big score for any youth that gets in on it. It’s an instant employer of labour!
Coding is a machine language for creating apps, websites and software. It’s the use of algorithms and their fit for specific applications in information theory, electrical engineering, mathematics, even linguistics and computer science, to transmit data in a more efficient and reliable manner.
Algorithm is a set of rules to be followed in solving operational problems and can be carried out repeatedly to arrive at the same result each time. Algorithms are usually applied for problem-solving with the use of the computer.
According to Oxford English Dictionary, the internet superhighway is “a route or network for the high-speed transfer of information; especially a proposed national fibre-optic network… (and) the internet.”
It is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the internet protocol suite, or the set of communication and similar computer network protocols used on the Internet, to communicate between networks and devices.
If all the governments of Nigeria, especially the Federal Government, led by Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), weigh in on this initiative of JAMB it will be a good way to achieve the desired intention of taking 100 million into the league of the middle class, even after President Buhari would have returned to his Daura cattle farm.
Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, all players in the digital economy, have become bigger than the brick-and-mortar companies like General Motors, Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, Shell, ExxonMobil, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America.
It is true that, if properly utilised, what is between your ears— meaning your brain—is worth more than all the mineral resources of gold, diamond and petroleum in the world. If Nigeria can enhance the capability of its youths to use their intellect creatively, they would make a significant impact in the arena of the global digital economy.
If you have seen the video footage of the young man, who took chessboards to Oshodi Underbridge in Lagos, and turned street urchins, in the order of Charles Dickens’ “Artful Dodger,” into chess champions, you will understand the United Negro College Fund advert that says, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”
The federal and state governments should make computer studies and English Language compulsory for candidates of ordinary level examinations, JAMB and the universities.
