Nigeria’s Education system needs total digital overhaul – Akanbi

The Chancellor of American Open University, Professor Seyi Akanbi, has called for a fundamental redesign of Nigeria’s education system, warning that simply transferring the conventional classroom model to the internet would not solve the country’s education challenges.

Akanbi said Nigeria needed to develop an education system specifically designed for the realities of the digital age and the country’s peculiar infrastructure challenges.

He spoke on Thursday in Ibadan at the Tribune Discourse organised by the NUJ Tribune Chapel, with the theme, “Bridging Nigeria’s Education Gap: How Technology and Online Learning Are Transforming Higher Education.”

According to him, online education should not be treated as a digital version of the conventional classroom, but as a system that is deliberately designed to provide flexible, accessible and practical learning opportunities.

He said, “We have a problem of design. We bring the same design of traditional education, wrap it around and package it as online learning. You cannot just package something that has failed and call it online learning. You have to redesign it from the ground up.”

Akanbi said challenges such as unreliable electricity supply and poor internet connectivity should not prevent Nigerians from accessing quality online education.

He explained that American Open University had adopted a flexible learning system that allows students to access course materials online and offline.

“Our system is designed in such a way that if you are a student, you have access to the course materials. If you go outside where there is internet, you have access to the course materials, and even if there is no internet, you can access them offline,” he said.

The university don also called for a shift from conventional digital literacy to what he described as “productivity literacy”, arguing that Nigerians were already familiar with digital platforms but needed to learn how to deploy technology for productive purposes.

“Everybody here is on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms. We use digital banking and other digital services. What we are lacking is a productivity system,” he said.

Akanbi said online education should be practical and technology-driven from the outset, noting that students at his institution carry out assignments, submit their work and communicate digitally without depending on a physical classroom.

“At our school, there is no physical classroom where you come and sit down. From the beginning, it is hands-on. Your assignments are done on the computer, submitted on the computer and communication is also digital,” he said.

On inclusiveness, Akanbi advocated the adoption of Universal Design for Learning to ensure that students with disabilities are not disadvantaged in the digital education system.

He said accessibility should give learners different options that enable them to choose the mode that best suits their circumstances.

“Accessibility should not be about putting one group of people at a disadvantage while trying to help another. It is about giving people the opportunity to choose the option that works best for them,” he said.

Akanbi also rejected the perception that graduates of online universities are inferior to those produced by conventional universities, arguing that the quality of education should be assessed based on the competence of graduates rather than the mode through which they received their education.

“Let us put all the traditional universities together. Do they produce graduates of the same quality? No. What we should measure is the competence of graduates from different schools,” he said.

Earlier in her opening address, Chairman of NUJ Tribune Chapel, Bunmi Ishola, said the discourse was designed to address critical issues affecting the future of education in Nigeria.

Ishola noted that while demand for higher education continued to increase, many Nigerians still faced barriers arising from limited admission spaces, distance, cost and inadequate infrastructure.

“The reality before us is clear. While the demand for higher education continues to grow, access remains a major challenge. Many young Nigerians are still unable to secure places in conventional institutions, while distance, cost, inadequate infrastructure and other barriers keep education beyond the reach of many,” she said.

She said technology had created opportunities to expand access to education beyond the traditional classroom, but stressed the need to determine whether Nigeria was adequately prepared to make such opportunities accessible to all.

“Technology offers us a new possibility. With online learning and digital education, the classroom is no longer necessarily confined by four walls. A student in a rural community can potentially access a lecturer, course or institution hundreds of kilometres away. But we must ask: Are we truly prepared to make this opportunity accessible to every Nigerian?” Ishola said.