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College of Engineering gets new ICT facilities
2008-10-04 10:32:28
By Nasser Kigwangallah
The newly formed College of Engineering and Technology of the University of Dar es Salaam (CoET),has new training facilities for Information and Communication Technology.
The new facilities at Kijitonyama of the formerly Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited training centre which have been acquired through the Korean government support, were inaugurated by the Education and Vocational Training minister Prof. Jumanne Maghembe yesterday.
In his remarks, Prof. Maghembe said Information and Communication Technology (ICT) was among the essential tools for enhanced social and economic development.
He said his ministry announced a long time ago that schools and higher learning institutions should adopt ICT as a teaching tool and a compulsory subject.
“With the inauguration of these facilities, it is envisaged that the CoET would be in a position to offer computer technology to many students,” he said.
He added that there was a need for a paradigm shift in the provision of ICT services and especially so, connectivity in rural areas.
The minister stressed that those focusing on rural areas need to develop connectivity models that are people centered and relevant to those communities.
He assured the gathering that the government was keen and committed to the establishment of ICT learning facilities as one of the ways and part of the government’s effort to help the population to have access to ICT.
The minister remarked: “By so doing the government aimed at empowering them to meaningfully participate in the current era of globalization and knowledge-based economy.”
He thanked the government of Korea through Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) for providing USD 2m as funds to acquire the facilities and also to renovate and supply ICT equipment.
Speaking at the occasion Young-Jun Kim, the Korean Ambassador to Tanzania said the project which is a collaborative effort between KOICA and the University of Dar es Salaam aims at increasing the ICT education capability for Tanzanians so that they could improve educational infrastructure and support human resources development at CoET.
Ambassador Kim said ICT would continue to play an important part in development and communication for the people to play their role effectively in the nation’s development.
“In this era, ICT not only brings us useful information, but also provides a key to access to state of the art technologies from every part of the world,” he said.
According to him ICT in developing countries was crucial not only for narrowing the digital divide, but also for promoting economic growth.
He said ICT could change the way we live and he commended Tanzania for making a considerable progress in deploying ICT in its learning institutions.
He said this progress has been well received by the citizens and service providers who are striving to address unmet demand and competition in newly liberalized markets and there was therefore a need to reduce barriers in deploying ICT and in developing the required human capital for sustainable participation of Tanzanian Society in the ICT industry.
He called for more efforts to train students, academic, and administrative personnel so that they could obtain the necessary skills for the use of ICT in their diverse functions.
He said the government would continue supporting the project so that it could be sustained by delivering the latest equipment ever.
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