By Chinyere Nwagbo
ICT professionals and private schools owners have urged the Delta State Government to pay closer attention to, and give priority to IT education.

This call  became necessary in light of the fact that most of the schools in the Warri area are yet to get on the IT train, despite current trends in the world’s dependence on IT in every sphere of life including education and learning.

Apart from the fact that the schools are unable on their own to provide enough ICT facilities for learning, which should have in itself triggered the support of the government, N.G.O’s and business organisations to partner with them to solve this problem, part of the solution now lies with the co-operation of the parents in supporting the ”one laptop per child” policy being introduced by some schools in Warri. However, convincing many parents to allow their children and wards access to the internet remains a problem. Their fear is that the children could be misled in the process.
According to Emma Avworo, an IT consultant based in Warri, the present IT curriculum used by secondary schools is bereft or devoid of any technical knowledge. This means it neither empowers the students after leaving school nor does it make them computer literate. It only makes them computer users.

For this reason, the curriculum has to be reviewed to reflect the times and should include some practical knowledge in software programming and computer applications, instead of computer appreciation which is currently being overflogged.

The textbooks have to be upgraded to contain imformation of this nature. According to him, other areas which need to be improved upon include schools networking, school projects in IT to stimulate creativity and inclusion of IT in WAEC and NECO exams to underscore its importance.

Dr Ochuko Akpeme, a school proprietor in Warri also says that schools have taken the welfare of their students into their hands, and are seeking new ways to meet the IT needs of their students. Some are now employing the services of consultants and certified organisations to help train students to prepare them for a better tommorrow.