SWOT analysis of ICT in Nigerian education

SWOT: stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

This article would try to shed some light on the strengths of ICT in Nigerian education, weaknesses of ICT in Nigerian education, opportunities of ICT in Nigerian education and threats to ICT in Nigerian education.

STRENGTHS OF ICT IN EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION & PLANNING

• —  ICT helps educational administration and planning students study courses using a wide range of sources: Through ICT, most educational administration and planning students are able to access materials relating to our subjects on the web, we are able to access more details from all parts of the world any day and anytime, ICT has also provided a platform where different websites can gather information from both overseas and nationally and summarize it easily for the students consumption, so through ICT, the students are not just confined to the materials they are given in class, but they are also privileged to do more research and gain better understanding on their subject/course and this is made possible through ICT.

• —  ICT prepares students for the world of work: In today’s modern world, almost all organizations and business activities are computerized, most of their transactions are performed online and records of such transactions are stored in the computer, nobody wants to go back to the  strenuous method of keeping these records in books an ledgers, rather you see companies computing data of transactions with Microsoft excel, Microsoft word e.t.c. so through some important course like Epa 103(Data processing in educational management) and Edu204 (Introduction to computer) educational administration and planning students are able to acquire basic skills in ICT that would enable students a greater chance to join the labor force and also enable them to perform tasks effectively and efficiently through the use of various ICT channels/mediums.

• —  ICT introduces both students and lecturers into a virtual world: through ICT students and lecturers are able to meet on a mutual ground even if they are not in the same room, for example most lecturers in don’t spend much time lecturing students in the lecture hall, but rather the lecturer could sit in the confinement of his home and issue a lecture to almost a 100 students through the use of a computer, another typical example is the sending of lecture notes and assignments  to student e-mails and students would receive these  notes and do any assignments given and they could also submit such assignments to the lecturer online, so through ICT, the lecturer could eliminate the stressful activities of mobilizing students to submit their assignments and the printing of bulky lecture materials for students and this has helped ease the learning process as a whole.

• —  ICT helps both students and teachers realize that teaching and learning are interactive processes: most lecturers today use ICT to support innovative teaching, for example, most lecturers prepare lecture notes on power point and they highlight the key points that they would discuss in class, while some lecturers use images or one sort of demonstration or the other , now when they are in class, the students are able to see the major points highlighted and they are also able to ask questions when they don’t understand or comprehend, but the major benefit is that students are able to see a new way of doing things and they try to adapt and the process of adaptation requires interaction, so students ask questions on the materials highlighted and through that interaction they have with their colleagues and teachers, they are able comprehend better and faster.

• —  Through ICT, the teachers are able to see the main difference between a traditional lesson and a computer based lesson: through ICT, most lecturers are able to see that the traditional method of standing in front of the class and dictating /lecturing students is just a waste of time compared to the ICT based method of using power point and other gadgets to aid the teaching process ,also they are also able to realize that students are more inclined to learn when they see new methods of learning and this would go a long way in motivating students to learn through new mediums.

• —  Most lecturers have ICT skills: most of the lecturers in educational administration and planning if not all, possess basic knowledge in ICT and this allows them to operate computers with ease, at least they have an idea of what a computer is, the characteristics of a computer, the functions a computer can perform and what to do with a computer when given one to perform a certain task, so in a general term, most lecturers are computer/ICT literates.

• —  The development of students’ skills to use ICT for their lifelong learning activities: ICT has always been taught in one form or the other starting from primary- tertiary institutions and these skills which are taught to students, are at one stage or the other used in the life of that student, because the world we live in today is highly influenced by ICT.

—  ICT helps in making quality plans/ proper decision making in administration and planning

WEAKNESSES OF ICT IN EDUCATIONALADMINISTRATION & PLANNING

•          Some lecturers hesitate to use ICT: even though ICT is a faster, better and more efficient way of life, it still remains new to some people, most lecturers might have been trained using the traditional method of face to face interaction/lecturing, so they may have also adopted that teaching technique and may have also gotten so used to it, so when ICT now comes into play, most lecturers might fear that it is something new and it may not be able to deliver the lecture the way they want, so they tend to stick with their normal method for some time, but after a couple trials, they also tend to migrate to the ICT side because they would realize that through ICT, they wouldn’t have to spend much time preparing lecture materials and ICT would be able to guarantee efficiency some other tasks they perform.

•          Not enough resources /computers for each student: resources such as computers and computer labs are not sufficient enough for admin and planning students, even though there are some, it can only go round when there are like 3 students to one computer and the whole effective learning process cannot be really achieved when these resources aren’t readily available.

•          Financial problems: even if the computers are finally made available for each student, there would be need for IT consultants and technicians to ensure the smooth running of the programs , so the university may need to employ the services of these IT consultants who will give instructions on the best way to use the computers to achieve the optimum goal of efficiency of education and also the dos and don’ts when using the computers, and also the services of technicians who would be in charge of fixing and setting up the computer systems when there is a failure. The school would also have to create budgets for more power supply to power up all the computers, a computer lab that would contain these computers and the students, teachers that would put the students through the whole computer process. All these things would cost money and they may also be extremely expensive and the school may not have enough funds to finance the whole project, so they just debunk the whole idea.

•          It reduces competency of lecturers and students: most lecturers and students tend to depend on computers solely to achieve any task, and by so doing they hardly use their cognitive section to do any task, that is they hardly do any critical thinking, rather administrators and planners tend to consult the internet and other sources for quick solutions to problems that may need critical thinking and end up doing task incompetently.

•          ICT operation requires computer literacy: ICT is not something that a person starts operating mysteriously, it takes gradual learning and practise to perfect it, now a major weakness in admin and planning is that not everybody knows how to operate a computer, so they are not able to use one when they see it except if they have knowledge in ICT.

•         ICT is used for teaching only some courses: some courses require practice for the learning to effectively take place, so in situations like that, ICT cannot come in.

•          Slow internet connectivity: sourcing for information from the world wide web, requires fast internet connection, but the university only made provisions for internet in the library at main camp library and even with the internet connection, many students and staffs are connected to the same server at the same time, that makes the connectivity so slow that, student can hardly get details on time.

•          Epileptic power supply in Nigeria, doesn’t allow the effective functioning of ICT, because most gadgets used in ICT are powered up by electricity and the electricity supply in Nigeria is really bad, so they can’t function properly.

•          Accumulated information that has been continually stored on the computer like students names, mat numbers, results and receipts of fees paid can be easily manipulated or  lost when a computer comes in contact with Viruses, Spam, Trojans, Hoaxes, Spyware and Adware.

•         Poor data systems and lack of compatibility

•         Lack of ICT friendly environment

•          No thoughts: Computers have no thoughts because they are machine and they are devoid of emotions. They have no feelings. Since, computers have no thoughts and feelings so they can't make judgement based on thoughts and feelings.

•       Increased moral degradation: ICT has brought about internet pornography, cyber bullying, scams and other anti-social behaviours and this issues are a worrying an emerging problems that continue to weaken efforts of the use of computers for educational purposes in educational administration and planning.

OPPURTUNITIES OF ICT IN EDUCATIONALADMINISTRATION AND PLANNING

• ·         ICT provides students with higher chances of securing jobs in the labour market: students who graduate with ICT skills, have a great chance of securing jobs in the labour market, because most organizational activities are computerised,  the operators have to possess basic knowledge to run such systems effectively.

• ·         ICT encourages active cooperation of school and businesses, public and private sectors, as well as the local community and government bodies, in computerization.

• ·         Digitization and the still increasing penetration of ICT into all areas of professional and private life will be even more all-embracing in moulding the information society in the future.

• ·         Courses integrated with ICT could either replace or be combined with traditional teaching methods, this would go a long way in boosting the effectiveness and efficiency of the teaching and learning process.

• ·         ICT provides students with new methods of doing things and this enables them to adapt easily to new patterns in the future e.g. doing personal research for an assignment or group work.

• ·         Students have a chance to present their work in a way that suits them.

• ·         Dynamism in the ICT base technologies will drive innovation processes and have a serious impact on all key industries in the Nigerian economy, i.e. innovative ICT students would have greater chances for economic development in Nigeria.

THREATS TO ICT IN EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND PLANNING

• ·         The cost of procuring, maintaining /servicing and sustaining computers and its other accessories are quite high and sometimes dissuade people from using ICT.

• ·         Computers to a certain extent, pose dangers to the eyes, the back and others, so it endangers a person’s health.

• ·         Some cultures believe that ICT in one way or the other, corrupt or influence their folks, so they discourage it.

• ·         The poor power supply is also a great threat to ICT in admin and planning because without power, ICT gadgets cannot even work.

• ·         Lecturers may fear being rendered irrelevant by the introduction of computers in his/her class. The ‘feel’ that the teacher still remains an authority and a ‘know it all’ in class is something that most teachers cherish, and anything that makes them otherwise is deemed an enemy of the classroom.

• ·         There is still a strong perception especially by the older generation that computers require highly skilled personnel to operate them, while this may not be the case, some school administrators also fear that their students will be exposed to adult sites and other undesired sites, through the use of the internet. Some also fear the infection of viruses to their computers leading to data loss, while this may be true to some extent, proper education on the safe use of computers and help alleviate some of these fears.

REFERENCES

 Moran, C.R., 1998. Strategic information technology planning in higher education: A new roadmap to the 21st century academy. 1 edn. Bolton, MA: Anker Publishing Company, Inc.

 Westrup, C., 2002. What's in information technology? Issues in deploying IS in organisations and developing countries. In: C. Avgerou and G. Walsham, eds, Information technology in context: Studies from the perspective of developing countries. 1 edn. Burlington, USA: Ashgate publishing company, pp. 96-110.

 2523 Questions & Answers on information and communication technology by Dr. Joseph Gusen.

 SWOT Analysis on the Use of ICT by Mijo Mirković School of Economics, Trade and Administration.

 Thijs, A., et al. Learning Through the Web. http://www.decidenet.nl/Publications/Web_Based_Learning.pdf. Accessed 21 May 2002. New link -http://www.decidenet.nl/apps/documenten/download/almekinders1.pdf

 12 Challenges Facing Computer Education by ictworks.com.