BY LAJU ARENYEKA

Any educational institution that is not moving with the tide of information and communication technology has outlived its relevance and should be shut down. This is the view of IT specialist, and chairman, Lean Sigma Concepts, Mr. Chibunna Ezenwa.

In an interview with Vanguard Learning, Ezenwa said; “The world is moving very fast, and schools cannot keep on making excuses for lagging behind. No doubt, the education sector is grossly neglected, especially in the area of ICT. We must understand that things are changing and that if we don’t keep on moving technology-wise, we will be left behind as far as education is concerned.”

It is in lieu of these challenges that his company went ahead to partner with India-based company, Siva Group, to champion ‘ICT for School Transformation.’ “ICT for School Transformation,” he said, “is not just a software, but a programme. Embedded in the programme is a software, but we are very clear about the terms because we don’t just install the software and walk away, but we give the whole package.  It transforms the way students approach their studies, the way teachers deliver their lectures as well as the way parents and administrators communicate.”

While expounding on the programme, Ezenwa said that the programme “basically has about 42 models ranging from centralized administration to knowledge management, enterprise resource management as well as communication and collaboration. It involves a single console web-based digital administration of all the operations of the school. In other words, you don’t have to keep on using different software for different aspects of school management, teaching, and administration.

“It also provides a learning management system for effective knowledge management, lesson plans, lecture notes and assignments; on-line exams for student-centric formative study and evaluation; virtual classrooms for collaborating with the best of teachers around the world, interactive parent portals for news, curriculum, child progress, fee schedules; integrated SMS and email services for event based alerts; in addition, parents can check their own children’s progress from any location via multilingual web support at any time and do not have to wait for the report sheet at the end of the term.”

According to Ezenwa, the programme has already begun to make an impression on the Nigerian education sector. “There isn’t anyone we have made a presentation to who isn’t interested in the programme,” he said, “it is just that there is a lot of bureaucracy in the sector. You have to make the same presentation to the school administration, parents, teachers, in some cases government officials and board of directors. It is always a very arduous decision-making process.”

The Lean Sigma boss also commented on the affordability of the programme. “It is very affordable, we charge about N7,500 per student, and we make concessions depending on the number of students each school provides. There is a certain percentage off if there are over 500 students in a school. Schools can decide to spread their payment across terms, making the already light burden much easier. We met a school administrator in Festac who spent sometime working in the U.S before coming back to Nigeria. When we told her the price, she laughed because she knows how expensive this programme is over there. She even said that she would pay for the students with her own money.”

Training of teachers and administrators in the schools also comes as part of the package. According to him; “We start training them from the basics of computer use to the rudiments of the programme until we are sure that they are conversant with the entire package.