The advancement in technology has affected every sphere of human endeavour. And education is not exempted. Individuals and organisations are jostling to catch up with this trend to avoid falling by the roadside. This has compelled Abia State Polytechnic, Aba, to “think outside the box” by exploring areas that could integrate it into this current order. Recently, the institution inaugurated an e-learning Management System Centre in partnership with ICT University of Louisiana, USA. The $250,000 facility will afford lecturers the skills to deliver lectures, give assignments to their students, and score them anywhere within the school with the help of devices such as laptops and phones. Students will equally access the lecture contacts they missed at real time. The partnership also extended to the delivery and installation of ICT equipment, such as computer units, electronic books, servers, among other equipment by the ICT University at Abia State Polytechnic, as part of first phase of the investment.

The President of ICT University Foundation, Prof Victor Mbarika, said that the gesture was to fulfill the mandate of the Foundation to promote quality education through ICT. He said that the centre would afford students of the polytechnic unrestricted and free-of- charge access to electronic books that will place them at par with global competitiveness

It is important to note that the facility can afford the polytechnic opportunities to shore up its internally generated revenue (IGR) by uploading programmes and lecture notes for a fee to people, borrowing a leaf from ICT University that 15 per cent of its IGR is drawn from such arrangement.

It is imperative for both the students and staff of the polytechnic to heed the advice of the Rector, Prof Ezionye Eboh, who charged them to embrace ICT or be left behind. The Rector also announced the institution’s preparedness to assume its position as the leading tertiary institute on ICT.

Abia State Polytechnic is looking forward beyond the e-learning partnership with the ICT University, to a physical arrangement in the form of exchange programme.

•Okechukwu Keshi Ukegbu, a public policy analyst, writes from Aba, via keshiafrica@gmail.com

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