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Saturday, May 12, 2007

NUC applauds New Horizons

The Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Julius Okojie has applauded the management of New Horizons Company for establishing an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) resource centres in some institutions of higher learning in the country.

Prof. Okojie gave this commendation at the commissioning of ICT certification cum e-learning centres at both Covenant and Crawford Universities, recently and said that the collaboration is a demonstration of public and private partnership (PPP) that would facilitate the turning out of quality graduates at the end of the day.

“I am therefore pleased, on behalf of the National Universities Commission to be associated with this project,” he said.

Prof. Okojie also was happy that New Horizons has commenced the PPP programme, its in line with the objectives of the federal government as a means of improving the education sector.

Commenting on the resource centre, the immediate past Executive Secretary, NUC, Prof. Peter Okebukola, lauded the New Horizons ICT certification initiative.

Prof. Okebukola who doubles as the chancellor, Crawford University, Igbesa, noted that what the company has done would enable the students from the benefiting schools to compete favourably with their counterparts any where in the world.

He urged other universities in the country to buy into this initiative so as to ensure that their students, especially the undergraduates benefit from it regardless of their chosen discipline.

“The discipline is not the issue, everybody needs sound ICT training to prosper in the emerging knowledge economy,” he advised.

In his remarks, the chancellor, Covenant University, Dr. David Oyedepo did not stop at commending the management of New Horizons for the initiative of supporting Nigerian universities through the provision of ICT certification trainings, equally called on NUC to ensure that only proven institutions with clear motives are given the approval to operate in the education sector, especially in the area of private university education.

Speaking at the occasion, the managing director, New Horizons, Mr. Tim Akano, explained that the concept involves the establishment of ICT centers in the universities, deploying certified instructors to train students.

He stressed that this initiative has gulped about N100 million so far, saying that it would enable beneficiaries to have industry skills while still at the universities because it is a practical certification programme Mr. Akano pointed out that the essence of the programme is that before graduating, students of partnering institutions would have between two and six relevant ICT certifications.

Just as the New Horizons chairman, Prof. Adebayo Adedeji enjoined Nigerian students to embrace the revolution that ICT is bringing into the education system in the country.

“Only the universities that are adaptable to change in Nigeria will get to the promised land of being counted among the world’s best,” he said.

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