By Thompson ABISOLA
The ICT University Foundation, Louisiana, U.S. on Friday donated N30 million worth of e-library facility equipped with world class equipment to the Kaduna State University (KASU).
Prof. Victor Mbarika, the President, Board of Trustee of the university said that the gesture was to boost the deployment of Informational and Communication Technology (ICT) teaching and learning in the university.
Mbarika, while handing over the facility to the university Chief Librarian in Kaduna, said that the e-library would enable the university lecturers to upload all their courses and teaching materials online.
According to him, this will enable students access the courses online from other parts of the world and also access other books and journals for free that would have cost them huge amount of money.
“Many university leaders in Nigeria and Africa do not care about technology. They prefer to remain in the dark ages of teaching and learning, but KASU vice chancellor and the chief librarian belong to the digital age.
“They have made several efforts in terms of deploying technology for teaching and learning, we want to support them to succeed in this regard.
“We have equally signed a Memorandum of Understanding with KASU for the exchange of students and faculty staff, but our major area of interest is to establish the e-library centre to bridge the technological gap.
He said that plans were underway to establish the West African Campus of ICT University in Kaduna State as part of the university’s commitment toward the development of technology-based higher education in Africa.”
On his part, the Chief Librarian, Prof. Abdullahi Musa said that the support provided an opportunity for the university to access latest information resources such as e-books, e-journals and other learning materials.
According to him, the facility and the access it provides to rich learning materials online is critical to the success of 21 century teaching and learning.
“Issues relating to knowledge cannot be quantified, but notwithstanding, the facility would have cost the university more than N30 million.
“We already have a robust ICT infrastructure, the facility would expand our students, academic and nonacademic access to the digital world and improve teaching and learning in the university.
Earlier, KASU’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Muhammad Tanko, thanked the ICT University Foundation for the gesture, stressing that no university in the 21st century would make much difference without deploying technology.
Tanko said that the university would continue to work hard toward ensuring that the university community tapped from the huge potential of digital driven education resources for effective teaching and learning.
