By: Yoriju Olayinka

On the 20th of March, 2024, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonprofit research institution in the United States, announced a series of discussions on technology. The content of the discourse to be presented to US policymakers would help to formulate future-proof policies and actively shape the American society to take advantage of possible advancements in the technology sector. Proactiveness strikingly characterizes the United States developmental history, from its quickening race to reach space decades back to the current AI revolution. 

A Tech Cabal article stated that in Nigeria, approximately 31% of internet users are on 4G networks, while only about 1% have access to 5G networks. Considering however, that only 55% of the country’s population use or have access to the internet, the heinous state of communication as a sector becomes an open sore and hence indefensible. UNESCO, with a focus on peace and cooperation through education, has estimated that learning is able to help build peace, eradicate poverty and drive sustainable development. The nexus between technology and education is indispensable. Thus far, how as an institution have we fared with the intersection of technology and learning?

Technology integration in the University of Ibadan is rather prevalent, but for the most part, only in its most basic form. Think streetlights, electricity, water pumps and the recent, half-hearted introduction of WiFi within the University premises. Compared with what is obtainable in more developed climes, the University of Ibadan barely scratches the surface of the type of supporting technological ecosystem the University needs to compete with its peers of a comparable status on the continent and across the globe. Distance Learning, the Center for General Studies and the students’ portal on the Unibadan website are three of the most prominent technologies or applications that the University has.

The Distance Learning Center, University of Ibadan has consistently struggled with the clear, rapid transfer of knowledge that it is meant to facilitate. Not only is a physical presence still required of most students from time to time at the DLC, Sasa Road, Ajibode extension. Also, the digital platform that should be at the heart of a remote learning program is fraught with manifold difficulties. Students are compelled to pay before gaining access to the platform. And sometimes, depending on how late they pay, may find themselves unable to access the platform entirely.

The Center for General Studies in spite of holding its classes online lacks a single unified proprietary digital classroom and instead, uses telegram to communicate when the University apparently has a Learning Management System that should be responsible for it. This mean that students are still consigned to carrying out important continuous assessments via platforms like google forms, in the absence of the right alternative that enhances the ease of the experience and takes away the possibility of cheating and malpractice.

GES students not only depend on physical textbooks, they also have to travel long distances to the Distance Learning Center at Sasa to even be able to write their examinations, since the University Main Campus apparently lacks the necessary facilities to enable such. Quite appalling, but computers to hold the simplest Multiple Choice Question exams are not all the University lacks.

The WiFi network provided for by the University management and paid for by the students, is spotty at best. When it works, the data speed is painfully slow. Also, it is common to see students grapple with assimilation in the absence of projectors within their lecture rooms or where such are present, to see them used. Where classes are held on Telegram for instance, as the digital platform of choice, terrible network issues and constant interruptions are the norm while some of the lecturers in charge have been said to display a barely competent level of control over the entire system of sharing information, simple as it might be.

(Unused Projector 📽️, Room 72, Faculty of Arts, UI)

The University of Ibadan website should serve multiple purposes. It should serve the administration itself as well as the students, while upholding the digital image of the University. On the contrary, the website homes a students’ portal that often simply refuse to be accessible, that shut down at the slightest sign of traffic, that struggles to reflect changes on the backend, in real time. That portal, is what has been made available to the student populace with scarcely an alternative. A problem that characterised past Students’ Union election has been glitches in the digital electoral system, an issue that was particularly prominent in the 2023 election that produced the Samson Tobiloba (Host) led administration, getting as bad as necessitating a shift in the date of the election on what was meant to be the D-day.

With the prevalence of Unibadan students who consistently win tech and innovation based hackathons and who own tech assisted startups, is the possibility of help truly that far from the University? Assuming the physical infrastructure is costly, unavailable or has some other status which makes it near impossible for the University to acquire them on short notice, what about the software aspect?

The justification for not allowing students to tamper with the back end of the Unibadan tech base has always been the possibility of a compromised system by unprofessional students and the need for security. The most recent publication on the University website which declared a rationing of electricity, something the University has claimed its management has little to do with, it is clear the security of the entire system is clearly in shambles.When then, if ever, will the University deem it fit to take a concrete step in addressing these issues?

The continued refusal to do any such thing only suggests that the current tech problems the University faces might be less of an infrastructural problem, and be more of a pointer to evidence a lack of political will to effect any lasting, meaningful change that will better position the University and its graduates for a future that is already here.