Very bad decisions by our policymakers in Nigeria. In secondary school, they push you to specialize after the 3rd year. So, from SSI (4th year), you move into Arts, Science, Technology, etc lines. Possibly, if you decide to do Further Mathematics, you may not be lucky to do Economics because WAEC has restricted you to 9 subjects.
(Even as a kid in the village, I found that very sub-optimal, and took 15 subjects in secondary school, and decided to write external WAEC (i.e. GCE) while in secondary school. That decision enabled me to study Economics and the typical Art courses even as I continued in secondary school for Physics, Chemistry, Geography, Further Mathematics, etc).
What Nigeria does in WAEC is not the best in my opinion. We’re restricting our young people too early. Contrast this with the United States where in secondary school, every kid studies the same thing. Yes, irrespective of your call for engineering, economics, music, etc, GED (WAEC equivalent) has about 4 subjects for all. Those 4 subjects – mathematical reasoning, reasoning through language arts, social studies, and science – cover more than 30 subjects we have in WAEC. Notice that they do not teach Mathematics, they teach mathematical reasoning, and that means pushing you into what that mathematics can help you solve.
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With WAEC severely over-specialized, the universities and polytechnics have picked the memo. In the university now, Nigeria gets 4-5 departments from a typical former EEE department. They have broken my FUTO undergraduate degree – Electrical and Electronics Engineering with option in Electronics and Computer Engineering – into five degrees.
This is unfortunate because there’s no need for this nonsense other than finding paths for more admission quotas and school fees. The polytechnic education could have made these new areas options under HND computer science, so, you still study HND Computer Science and can specialize in your final year in AI. And the certficate will read: HND Computer Science with option in Artificial Intelligence.
Notice that increasingly some of these students when they go for further education abroad, they would be required to take many prerequisites. For example, if you did BSC AI and want to do MSC in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, you will have to take many prerequisites before they will allow you to begin the main program.
I call our leaders to rethink these policies.
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So what do you recommend?
Did you read where he mentioned, “Instead of HND in AI, we could have HND Computer Science with AI as an option”?
Our problem in this country is that we rush into doing things without proper analysis taking into consideration of all the pros and cons of new policies. Someone will just wake up in the morning and introduce a policy that are apparently unreasonable. This is why we always have a lot of policy failures in the country. I won’t be surprised if after implementing this policy for few years, it is reverted to HND Computer Science again! What a country, what a policy!!
I was thinking wouldn’t it b nice to have it splitted like this for those who don’t know what they want in computer science to actually do research b4 entering HND and follow that path look at it as a chance to pursue a career already while still in sch
Because normally they won’t do all this in any poly they just teach us all with the belief that we’re in computer science
Yes i think so …… I think it cool dis way
Can you guys ever give constructive criticisms without using foul words or ranting?
Nope, as a computer science student myself, I disagree with this post. The field “computer science” is so broad that piquing the interest of students in other fields in this career path isn’t enough.
Currently we have different fields under computer science which are broad on their own.
We have software engineer which further breaks down to web development, mobile development, desktop development, reverse engineering and so on. Web development in itself breaks down to Backend and Frontend. Backend in itself breaks down the dB administration, developer, DevOps and so on…
You can see, just one course has multiple pathways. And all these can’t be crammed into students in 4 – 6 years. These are lifelong learning career pathways.
Even in advanced countries, they are beginning to scrap computer science in its entirety and introduce these pathways under computer science.
Of a truth, with a degree in computer science, you can only work as a researcher. To specialise, you’d need to take up more courses (which would take a while).
And so I see this move by the government a step in the right direction as computer science students won’t just waste their time learning outdated things in school and rather, focus on what they’ll do in the real world.
Absolutely Brilliant!
In fact You’ve made a great point so far bro.???
Good bless you ?
Is this unbundling for polytechnic only
Hope University is not included
What happened to database?
I wished our policy makers and the public would read meaning into this eye opener.
This is Trash. Forget that Masters you are talking about, Computer science is very wide course that’s why most graduates of this course, most especially in public institutions don’t really gain much because the school trys to touch every area which is not possible and the students gets just the basic part of it. This is a brilliant move so they can learn in depth of a particular field of study not just getting tip of the iceberg. That’s why one can’t get a better Job with just what school taught you and your paper because the big question most of them fail is what can you do best in that field? Most end up collecting peanut because they don’t have a particular area in computer science that they are very good at practically and not theoretically. I know of a guy who is an ND computer Science student who was earning around 600k before the Covid-19 pandemic not based on what he was taught in school but the particular area of specialisation he learnt online in Computer science practically. So please we need a particular area of specialization in Computer Science so we can directly channel all our energy to make sure we very good in it and not just learning unwanted courses. And they should just cancel all general courses that doesn’t concern the field except for Math and English
As someone who studied computer science, I agree with you. Students need to specialize early on. Let them do away with some of those General studies courses that are irrelevant to the programme.
how can som1 start a discussion by sayin “ds is trash”. he seems like a barbarian to me. u dont force any1 to agree wt u. u only do ur best in convincin them to reason all wt u. whatever he has to say, i (personally) am off!
He started a good response terribly. The Hallmark of the presentation t social media generation. We can pass our comments without being “aggressive”.
I think it would be better to endeavour to write long hand.
The unnecessary use of non standard abbreviations especially when space is not a constraint, is weary on some readers who may have to break to decipher the meaning of the abbreviated word.
On resumption, they may have to reread the sentence because that forced break had thrown them off the smooth flow of thought.
When this happens, reading (an interesting and enjoyable endeavour) now becomes laborious and time consuming undertaking.
Pls. be informed that, no general course that’s irrelevant.
Citizenship Education teaches you how to know and love your country etc.
English and Communication skills teaches you how to effectively communicate with your clients and colleagues at work and elsewhere etc.
Law teaches you how to be guided in doing your job and or businesses successfully etc.
Psychology also teaches you more on your effort to know how to relate to people in an atmosphere of understanding etc.
My brother any course you offer in general studies don’t assume it is useless.
It is important in one way or the other.
Remember the time History was stroke out of Nigerians curriculum, many of the Youths these days don’t know the history of their background and they don’t know anything about Nigeria’s history.
It’s as a result of this, the country now reversed to the introduction of the course into our Schools.
You spoke my mind and the mind of most positive thinkers. What NBTE did was ok and excellent. Enough of Jack of all trades degrees and diploma that ends the holder nowhere. Let NBTE enrich each HND specialised area with enough relevant courses that will make the holder employable not HND in computer science that wants the holder to know and do everything. The same approach in necessary for most degree programmes in our universities in Nigeria.
I strongly agree with you
I love the new idea it wud help us a lot
Thank you we have same suggestions…… I study computer science but due to the wide level of the course i was unable to hold on a particular field….. But with this new partion i think students will bi able to knw dere strength a face one particular field.
Nw am thinking of going for extra training on a particular field i want after graduation wch is bad….. I love this new options in computer science
Exactly ?
I disagree. The general knowledge in the early years is plausible to the extent that the student will not be pigeonholed. Specialization at the HND is what it should be because the student would have the opportunity not to choose in haste, which could endanger a student’s academic prosperity. How much does a fresher know about choices any way? Is this what we need to improve on our education.Policy deviod of cross-pollination of ideas, lobesided and parochial.
Compulsory limitation is not good for anyone. Let the student do as much as they can in high school and then choose courses to start for in the qualifying exams. This way, they naturally pick areas of interest and expectedly do well by them. This also should guide their path in higher institutions of learning if they need to be there. This is the point where FOCUS is now needed plus, the student is happy and enjoy their time there.
* courses to seat for please
They made the best decision, because knowledge is too vast for you to be master of all. The computer science department has gone far beyond theory. And note the curriculum is not out yet.
Why emphasis on Master’s degree and America? Every form of Education must have its local content which is derived from the people’s culture. Part of our problems is raising graduates to fit into America or Europe. We don’t need to shy from being ourselves. Let’s experiment on what we perceive as appropriate in our developmental processes.
We’ll keep evolving and prospering when we think forward. This is a move in the right direction.
My concern is the fact that currently I don’t think these Nigerian institutions are equipped with capable Lecturers to teach the courses…
This has been our mistake,right from when we attempted breaking our secondary school education using JSS and SSS ,hoping to let all specialize early ,those that will go for technical education (technical school),technology(Polytechnic) and theoretical approach to solving problems (University),a good policy but without proper preparation of the manpower to drive the policy which ended up as a mere increase in the years spent for secondary education without achieving it’s set goals and objective.Now,do we have adequate manpower for this unbundling(a good and welcome policy) of our various higher education courses such as Computer Science and some others e.g Mass Communication.But are we well equipped to take on this policy?
Absolutely.
I teach in the Polytechnic, presently the computer science departments don’t have the specialist sell grinded in those areas that is the problem now .
I think with dis options one can really knw wat he/she is doing….. Not just study the course without any area of specialization…
I love this new move
I feel they made a good decision considering the fact that Computer science is so broad with emerging fields of study that were not in existence some years back, we anticipate more areas of study in the future, hence the need fir specializations. This is a good decision in my opinion. And to build on contributions from other people on the thread, I have met people who have degree/hnd in computer science but have little practical knowledge on coding, networking, etc let alone build something, and still have to go to training institutes like NIIT, and APTECH, for more indepth knowledge of what they should have gained from “specializations” in schools.
The unbundling of HND computer science is a very good idea.we should not be jack of all trades master of known.l also propose that this unbundling should be extended to other fields to make it more meaningful and impactful to the society.For example a course like STATISTICS need to be unbundled at the HND level into : Econometrics, Operations Research, Biometric/Biostatistics, Statistical Quality control and management, Statistical Survey and Experimental Design. Etc . I believe this will make more impact to the society and Statistics is almost going obsolete in Nigeria.
You are making sense
And Data Analytics should also be unbundled from statistics
I love this move,I have an ND upper credit in computer engineering but yet had no practical knowledge when graduated so I decided never to go for HND, right now I am currently undergoing a training in software development but if this happens to be real then I’ll be glad to back for HD program.
I love this move,I have an ND upper credit in computer engineering but yet had no practical knowledge when graduated so I decided never to go for HND, right now I am currently undergoing a training in software development but if this happens to be real then I’ll be glad to go back for HD program.
But I think the tertiary institutions of the country he contrasted us with (US) have more specialized programmes than us. Let it just be about priorities in line with the global trends. If it’s so, I think it’s ok.
Laudable policy by governments to focused students rather than jack of all master of none.Choose your area and specialized, this would also reduced proliferation of professional bodies in Nigeria. It should be noted that same has been done to universities, tp mentioned but few, mass communication has also been splited.
I disagree with this publication. General computer engineering at the OND stage gives insist to what the submit is about and affords student opportunity to specialize. Computer engineering is a wide and specialized course, learning all branches eventually makes our graduates jack of all but master of none. Looking at our curriculum where irrelevant courses(subjects) are included to our courses makes assimilation difficult for students.
Specialization at early HND gives opportunity for mastery in that area rather than small/half knowledge in every specialty.
My prayers is that I pray let them bring or put in good lecturers that will do justice to all those courses .not that we will be doing a particular course and at the end they won’t do even 50% justice when lecturing students because all this new courses are not easy courses to be played with ….
This person just talked rubbish that’s all I can say, because Computer Science is what I studied and I know how hectic it feels to be computer scientist.
That department is supposed to be a faculty of its own because its vast.
It’s just like medicine being splited into different sections, med-lab, radiology, physiotherapy, nursing etc why not all those people study everything about medicine then start practicing anyone one you feel like it’s ok for you, which you can switch to any section any time.
Thank you.
He knows nothing. Don’t mind him. Just one simple decision he can’t make and write and impactful article, and they will be blaming government and religious leaders. I felt disappointed reading the post
This has been our mistake,right from when we attempted breaking our secondary school education using JSS and SSS ,hoping to let all specialize early ,those that will go for technical education (technical school),technology(Polytechnic) and theoretical approach to solving problems (University),a good policy but without proper preparation of the manpower to drive the policy which ended up as a mere increase in the years spent for secondary education without achieving it’s set goals and objective.Now,do we have adequate manpower for this unbundling(a good and welcome policy) of our various higher education courses such as Computer Science and some others e.g Mass Communication.But are we well equipped to take on this policy?
Reply
Exactly what I thought when I read this same news today.
I immediately said: “this people should have beaten other countries that like to unbundle their courses, by choosing to retain HND in Computer science, and simply put the specialization that the scholar chose and did in their final year”
I.e, something like HND computer Science (Cyber security option)
You’ll see that a graduate with the above mentioned HND with option in Cyber security, will be much more employable and have more options.
So, in case he couldn’t immediately secure a job in Cyber security, he can still use his computer science HND jejely.
They also forgot that most wester countries only or typically unbundle courses at Masters level (and NOT first degree/HND level)
FUTO and some universities graduates indeed enjoyed this kind of “cleverness”, by using specializations in later stages of their courses to give their students both GENERAL & SPECIFIC advantages in job market (also in general knowledge acquisition). This is generally referred as “OPTIONS”
Something like B.Eng Electrical Electronics Engineering (Communications option)
So, you see that this graduate above can comfortably seek work in most places an Electrical and/or electronics engineering can work.
Additionally, he can because of his “specific” advantage as someone who studied COMMUNICATIONS option, still seek for work in IT, ICt, network bla bla bla, etc… and basically he’d be a hot cake in Telecoms industry.
think with dis options one can really knw wat he/she is doing….. Not just study the course without any area of specialization…
I love this new move
The polytechnic body took the right step timely this is in line with international higher institute of learning.. University governing body should incorporate the same across all computer science department and send the memo to all fed. and state own universities with immediate effect. Not just for undergraduate but post graduate study as well
Trashy post. Good thing alot of people know you are speaking rubbish. Because it’s clear you don’t know the more specialized courses are the more the graduate can be able to apply their knowledge.
The only thing making sense was the secondary school part and it’s debatable as such
I don’t think this is a good report. Especially with the languages used, especially if you call this a news media and not a blog. And a lot of emphasis on things not related to the topic.
On the split, it’s actually a good idea, they all do basic computer science in the first 2 years, then specialise in the other years.
The degree “computer science” is becoming obsolete whether you like it or not, and can be gotten without going to school. I have friends who studied other degrees and are leading top tech firms or being recruited by top tech firms. Google specifically prioritise their certificate programs when recruiting. Computer science is the most vulnerable courses in university education, because it can be easily gotten without spending 4yrs.
So splitting the course into these courses is a good idea. At least graduating with a degree in cyber security or AI makes better job prospects than a degree in computer science.