By ISYAKU GARBA

A report of a one-day ICT sensitization workshop fro principals of secondary schools in Kano

The Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) has, for the second time, conducted an ICT sensitization workshop for Kano State Secondary Schools principals on Monday 6^th May, 2013 at Rumfa College, Kano. The first one was conducted on 5^th July, 2012 which was attended by 28 principals and 2 zonal education officers (ZEOs). This year’s workshop witnessed the participation of 36 principals and three (3) ZEOs from three education zones of the State, namely Kura, Dambatta and Minjibir. The workshop was declared opened by the Director General of Kano State Senioir Secondary Schools Management Board (KSSSSMB), Alhaji Habibu Hassan who was represented by the Director Recruitment and Training Malam Rabiu Muhammad Jakada, KSSSSMB,. Other officials of the board presente were Minjibir Zonal education officer Alh. Tijjani Kabara, the ZEO of Kura, Mal Tafida M. Sarari and Danbatta Zonal Education Officer Alh. Maiwada.

The objectives of the workshop programmes were to enhance the understanding of the participants on ICTs, explain the various uses of ICTs in schools and administration and management, provide participants with various sources of support and assistance for ICTs in schools and expose them to quick ways of learning the computer

In his welcome remarks, Mallam Ahmad A. Yakasai CITAD Training Coordinator who represented the Executive Director of CITAD described the workshop as an effort to ginger up the principals in embracing ICTs in schools as critical tools for both administration and learning. According to him, ‘CITAD, as part of its effort towards contribution to greater use of ICTs in school, had chosen to conduct the ICT sensitization for the schools heads.’ He lamented on how our society was left behind in terms of IT, despite the fact that IT has become a global concerned.

Director Recruitment and Training Mal. Rabiu Muhammad Jakada, KSSSSMB during his speech who represented the DG KSSSMB asserted that ICT was now unanimously agreed to be ‘universal language- what people irrespective of their age, color, sex, tribe, religion, ethnicity, should learn’. He added, ‘IT dominates all our day to day activities and it is synonymous to education, power and economy. There are many countries that were poorer than Nigeria some years back but now their economies were growing faster than that of Nigeria as a result of ICT, He encouraged the participants to, not only learn IT but also encourage their students to study it in their future career especially in this age where we are annually graduating millions of students from our tertiary institutions without places for them in the labour market, IT graduate can easily be self-employed. Lastly, he also called on the participants to pay attention during the workshop and make sure that they derive maximum benefit from it.

The workshop featured six presentations. The first was on Understanding ICTs presented by Mal. Ahmad Yakasai where he took the participants through the various dimensions of ICTs so that they could had better grasp of what it was. This was followed a presentation on ICTs in school administration and management by Isyaku Garba. This presentation focused the various uses of ICTs in school for administration and general management of schools and students. This ended by emphasizing that principals would derive enormous advantages by using ICTs. The third presentation was on Online tools and advanced Internet Applications by Mal. Ahmad Yakasai. This was a further demonstration and expansion of the points raised by the presentation on ICTs in school administration and management. Here participants were shown how to keep record online so that they could be secured and permanently and always available, anywhere and anytime.

After the lunch break, two more presentations were taken. These were Sources of support and assistance for ICTs in Schools by Mal. Kabiru Dakata and Self-learning the computer: strategies and tips by Engr. Kamal Umar. while the firir provided information about where they could obtain support and assistance for their school-based ICT proejcjts, the latter was a demonstration of how people could learn to use the computer without having to worry about learn of trainer.

The workshop described how the recent changes in the education system have made the use of computer in schools very critical. The efficiency and friendly nature of the system are some of the factors why the system has been accepted in some parts of Nigeria. With this development, teachers of secondary and tertiary institutions can discharge their administrative and management duties in an easiest and interesting manner. Some tedious aspects of teaching job like compilation of students` result, keeping data of students, proper keeping of records, etc are made easy with the use of computer.

The last session was devoted to a general discussion on issues around ICTs in schools it was observed that literacy in ICT is inevitable. it was observed that ICT tools that could be used to reduce congestions problems in classes/schools and enhance teaching and learning, therefore participants urged that there was the need to provide secondary schools and zonal education offices with IT equipment. Participants expressed their satisfaction on the quality of the presentations and their readiness to partner with CITAD for improving IT literacy in their schools.

The participants also urged KSSSMB to be partnering with CITAD in such events and suggested that more ICT facilities should be provided to schools. They further described the workshop as just a beginner and advised the participants to always search for ICT knowledge and update themselves

In his vote of thank, the Principal Government Secondary School Kwankwaso Malam Kabiru Sani thanked the organizers and all the presenters for being present despite their tight schedules. He thereafter promised as part of his contribution toward promoting computer knowledge that his school is going be the first one to be train after this workshop.