By Francis Sardauna:
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has built and donated an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) centre to Government Secondary School, Kalgo-Gari in Daura Local Government Area of Katsina State.
Speaking during the inauguration and handing over ceremonies of the centre to the management of the school Thursday evening, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, said the intervention was to address the deficit suffered by students in ICT.
He explained that the ICT centre is equipped with state-of-the-art computers, projector, printer, photocopier and is powered by a generating set with a backup inverter to ensure stable power supply in order to avert outage.
Sylva added that the centre will serve as an e-learning hub that will enable the students to engage in research and development, as well as to have all skills in digital literacy.
He said: “The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board is set up to develop local capacity and one of the very useful capacities we want to develop in Nigeria is ICT capacity.
“Today (Thursday) we inaugurated a project that I believe will develop the young men of Daura because our problem as a country is to try and see how we can develop the young people of this country because the future of the country is in the hands of the young ones who are growing up.
“And that is why this facility is put in the middle of a secondary school so that at this level, they (students) can grow in the knowledge of computers. The facility is done in a very sustainable way and that is why the facility is solar-powered with a standby generator.
“Students can, through this facility, learn internationally. They can learn online and that means that they can stay here and be taught by anybody anywhere in the world.
“This exposes students here in Katsina to the world and we are quite happy that we were able to do it. We have done this in other places and we will continue to do it because that is the mandate of NCDMB.”
He charged the management and staff of the school to encourage the students to use the e-learning tools provided in the facility to boost their knowledge and potential.