Njala University,7th October,2020- Njala University has been officially selected by a United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) funded project for the implementation of Learning Management systems in Higher Educational Institutions in Sierra Leone.
The UNESCO Regional Office in Abuja, Nigeria yesterday organised a remote kick-off launching of the project to be piloted by Njala University and later rolled-out to the Ernest Bai Koroma and the University of Sierra Leone.
Mr. Victor Sesay, Director of Technology and Innovation at the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education said in the remote session hosted at the UNESCO Abuja Office noted that the session was held to have the kick-off of the project and also provide an opportunity for the different players such as the donors, consultants, the Universities, MTHE officials to better understand their roles and responsibilities and also better equip themselves with the key deliverables of the project.
Acting Vice Chancellor and Principal, Professor Osman Sankoh was full of appreciation for UNESCO for choosing Njala University to implement the pilot phase of the project.
He recounted that the emergence of COVID-19 had provided the world and Sierra Leone in particular to make way and use e-learning platforms as credible alternatives to impact teaching, learning and research.
ICTs he went on, will enable higher educational institutions to significantly improve on the quality of the services, making the University globally more competitive and more responsive to the needs of our stakeholders.
Mallam .O.pinpointed that this is especially true for today’s students whose attitudes and learning styles are greatly influenced by the highly interactive world they live in.
He concluded by disclosing that the timely intervention of UNESCO and the Ministry would transform course delivery for staff and students and facilitate a modern teaching and learning methods in Sierra Leone universities and committed his Administrations ‘support fully execute and roll out the project in line with the MOU.
Dr. Mohamed Kamanda, Secretary General NATCOM Sierra Leone lauded UNESCO for intervening into Sierra Leone’s Educational system at this difficult period and cited the several challenges associated with effectively using ICT’s to impact teaching, learning and research.
UNESCO Regional Director,Mamadou Lamine Sow disclosed that Sierra Leone and Liberia are priority countries for UNESCO in terms of developing their ICT infrastructure for the establishment of elearning platforms to support educational advancement.
COVID-19 he emphasized has greatly impacted the way of lives of people including education outcomes and expressed the high commitment,leadership and political will from the Government of Sierra Leone and the leadership of the respective Universities in the implementation of the project.
Deputy Minister of Technical and Higher Education,Turad Senessie noted that the Government of President Bio has as its flagship program Human Capital Development and that the implementation of Learning Management systems is a vehicle towards the sound implementation of the HDI’s.
He further indicated that the implementation of the Learning Management Systems could have considerable challenges in terms of implementation but that this could be surmounted with extra efforts from the administration staff and students.
The Deputy Minister registered the political will from the presidency towards the use of ICT systems to impact quality education teaching and learning.
Earlier on the two UNESCO hired consultants made a step by step presentation on how the project would be implemented and the respective roles of the various HEI’s.
Njala University was selected by UNESCO after rigorous selection processes to pilot the project for an eventual roll out to the University of Sierra Leone and the Ernest Bai Koroma University amongst several others higher educational institutions.
See Press Release
For Immediate Release
OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF UNESCO FUNDED E-LEARNING PROJECT AT NJALA UNIVERSITY
Njala University, Wednesday 7th October 2020 –The Regional Director, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the Minister of Technical and Higher Education (MTHE) of Sierra Leone will officially launch the E-learning project at Njala University, Sierra Leone.
With the general closure of Universities and schools following the COVID-19 health crisis, Distance and E-Learning have become credible alternatives to maintain students and pupils in educational, training, and research links. The UNESCO Regional Office in Abuja is conducting a pilot project in Sierra Leone through the creation of online learning platforms.
Njala University, a public rural University in Sierra Leone has been selected by UNESCO following rigid selection criteria to implement the project and subsequently rollout to other Higher Educational Institutions in Sierra Leone.
The Acting Vice Chancellor and Principal, Professor Osman Sankoh (Mallam .O.) has expressed hope that the timely intervention by UNESCO and the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education would transform course delivery for staff and students and facilitate a modern teaching and learning methods in various Universities in Sierra Leone.
Mr Thomas Songu, the Director of ICT at NU said it is a dream come true and furthered that the launch of the project will enhance the exiting online course delivery platform at Njala University to provide staff and students increasing access to lecture notes, course content and other digital learning materials.
UNESCO Support will cover the following areas :
- The creation of a Moodle platform for online course delivery
- The configuration of the platform to make it operational.
- The registration of students, research professors and local administrators of the platform.
- The implementation, installation and configuration of courses.
- The enrolment of students in the different courses.
- Supervision of the organization of examinations by the Consultant to be recruited.
For additional information, please contact
Ralph Simeon Sesay
Public Relations Officer, Njala University
E-mail: rssesay@njala.edu.sl
Tel: +232 30317197/ +232-76-336213
Web: https://njala.edu.sl
Credit: Njala Media Team
