African universities urged to introduce computer education in all faculties

African universities have been advised not to limit their Information Communication and Technology (ICT) education to students in the computer science and engineering faculties alone.

They should in addition, introduce ICT in the academic discipline of all faculties of the universities to ensure that students were taught to be computer literate even as they pursued various academic disciplines to enable them apply ICT as a friendly tool.

Mr Albert Kan-Dapaah, Minister of Communications, made the call at the launch of the Abdu Salam/KNUST Microprocessor Laboratory African Regional Course on Advanced Very Large Scale Integrated Circuit (VLSI), at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology KNUST in Kumasi on Tuesday.

The three-week course, being organised by the Abdu Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) based in Trieste, Italy, and is being attended by scientists and researchers from 22 African countries.

It aims at bringing the scientists together to share ideas and receive lectures from leading scientists in their various fields.

Mr Kan-Dapaah said it was sad to note that most African educational systems succeeded in bringing out good university products but were ICT deficient.

He said Ghana ICT policy document recognised that human resource was the key to developing and transforming Ghana from a predominantly subsistence agriculture based economy into a predominantly information and knowledge based economy and society.

He said Ghana was currently facing a human resource problem in technical and managerial skill areas as well as in the ICT skills.

Mr Kan-Dapaah said many user organisations in Ghana had not been able to keep up with the rapid technological developments due to lack of expertise to digest new information about these technologies and integrate them into the existing operations of the organisation with minimum disruption.

He said the economy required a pool of expertise to support the development and exploitation of the technologies and systems within organisational set-ups.

The Minister said the government was aware of financial challenges faced by the universities in the country but said the government would assist them to re-invent themselves, revise their initiatives, expand their horizons, redefine their key strategic alliances and fully become techo-oriented establishment that could employ technologies to do better.

Miss Stanka Tanaskovic, Administrator at the ICTP, said the centre was created with the aim of helping physicists and mathematicians in developing countries to stay at the forefront of their disciplines.

She said the centre had made special efforts to create an intellectual atmosphere that encouraged excellence in teaching and research by providing training for research and training through research in diversity of fields such as physics of condensed matter, high energy physics, pure and applied mathematics and nuclear physics.

Professor Francis Kofi Ampenyin Allotey, a renowned scientist and a member of the Scientific Council of ICTP, who chaired the function, called for increased public funding into research, especially in the area of ICT to enable African countries to benefit from it.

He commended the Ghana government for taking a bold step to bridge the gap in the information divide.

A book entitled "The Saga of Professor F.K.A. Allotey, the African Scientist" was launched at the ceremony.

The book, written by Mrs Asie Mirekua Allotey, wife of Prof Allotey, traces his background and achievements as one of the African eminent scientist in the current generation.

Mrs Allotey said the aim of the book is to encourage the younger generation to make excellent use of their time and aspire to greater heights in their endeavours.