Archives: Centres

Africa Centre of Excellence on Technology Enhanced Learning (ACETEL)

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Host University: National Open University of Nigeria

Vice Chancellor: Prof. Olufemi A. Peters

Centre Leader: Prof. Grace E. Jokthan

Deputy Centre Leader: Dr. Vivian Nwaocha

Centre’s Website: https://acetel.nou.edu.ng/

University’s Website: https://noun.edu.ng/

Contact: acetel@noun.edu.ng

 

Africa Centre of Excellence on Technology Enhanced Learning (ACETEL) is a World Bank assisted project supported by Association of African Universities, and National Universities Commission (NUC), Nigeria. The Centre focuses on development of human capacity and research in digital solutions that will lead to the utilisation of technology for education and its deployment to other sectors.

The centre hopes to bridge the technology knowledge gap by building capacity in Information Communication Technologies (ICTs), Cyber Security and Digital policies to achieve high levels of digital development on the African continent.

Established in February 2019, ACETEL is domiciled at the headquarters of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Jabi, Abuja, Nigeria.

 

African Centre Of Excellence for Innovative And Transformations Stem Education (ACEITSE)

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Host University: Lagos State University, Nigeria

Vice Chancellor: Prof. Olanrewaju Adigun Fagbohun

Centre Leader: Distinguished Prof. Peter Okebukola, OFR

Deputy Centre Leader: Professor Olatunde Owolabi

Centre’s Website: https://lasu-aceitse.org/

University’s Website: https://lasu.edu.ng/home/

Contact: director.aceitse@lasu.edu.ng

 

The Africa Centre of Excellence (ACE) Project is an initiative of the World Bank, co-funded by the Bank and Agence Francaise de Developpement (AFD). The Association of African Universities (AAU) is the Regional Facilitation Unit (RFU) while the National Universities Commission is the coordinating Unit for such centres in Nigeria. In 2019, Lagos State University was approved to host the Africa Centre of Excellence in Innovative and Transformative STEM Education (ACEITSE) LASU’s ACEITSE is one of the ACE Impact centres of excellence in 12 West and Central African countries.

The Centre was conceived to address the developmental challenge through the production of innovative and transformative master teachers who will inspire learning in STEM subjects through the delivery of a range of engaging, contextual and technology-mediated teacher professional development programmes.

Over the last two decades, there has been a growing demand in Nigeria and in other West African countries for better quality STEM teachers. Universities and other teacher preparation institutions in the sub-region have responded with strategic plans to step up their output of such teachers. Unfortunately, the results of implementing such plans have been unimpressive on account of resource deficits and the low student intake into the system. If this trend continues, a rather gloomy future has been predicted for socio-economic development of Nigeria and other countries in the sub-region realising the critical roles of science and technology to development and the central role of STEM teachers in this enterprise (Okebukola, 2016; 2017). What is urgently needed are delivery systems that will address the observed deficiencies in training quality STEM teachers and provide a model for training master trainers in STEM subjects. ACEISTE will provide an excellent example of achieving this goal.

The Science and Technology Education Department of Lagos State University with all its programmes in full accreditation standing with the National Universities Commission the host of Centre. The department (in previous and current nomenclatures) has a 30-year national and international reputation for innovative models of training STEM teachers. At the national level, since 1988, staff and graduates of the department have been recognised at national workshops and conferences for their competence in delivering quality STEM education (see STAN Proceedings 1998-2017 and Proceedings of STAN workshops, 1988-2017 in biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer studies and environmental education).

At the international level, staff and students of the department to hosting the Centre have been globally recognised for their research-inspired innovative models of teaching STEM. In the last five years, no STEM education research group in Africa has been given competitive visibility at international conferences of the National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST), the world’s No. 1 STEM research group as the LASU group. Worthy of remark also is that the Director of the Centre is the only African in the 80-year history of NARST to serve two successful terms on the Board of Directors of NARST and up until 2017, served as the chair of the Association’s most prestigious committee (see for example, NARST conference proceedings from 1998 to 2017).

The rich corpus of experience and empirically-validated efficiency of the LASU group gives confidence that the Centre will multiply several times, its impact in training innovative STEM teachers. The department also has national fame in e-learning delivery and training of teachers having successfully implemented the Lagos State Government-Lagos State University E-learning Programme for the highest number of students and teachers in one intervention session in Nigeria.

 

Africa Centre of Excellence on New Pedagogy in Engineering Education (ACENPEE)

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Host University: Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria

Vice Chancellor: 

Centre Leader: Prof. Raymond B. Bako

Deputy Centre Leader: Prof. Abdulkarim S. Ahmed

Centre’s Website: https://acenpee.abu.edu.ng/

University’s Website: 

Contact: acenpee@gmail.com

 

ACENPEE is a centre of excellence to fill the gap that exists in the training of engineering professionals where there is over reliance on traditional teaching methods which hardly produce well-skilled engineers.

The centre plans to implement modern, engaging, student-centered pedagogies that include Cooperative, Hands-on, Active, Problem-based Learning (CHAPL) that are capable of producing high quality engineers.

 

Centre for Food Technology and Research (CEFTER)

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Host University: Benue State University, Makurdi

Vice Chancellor: 

Centre Leader: Dr. Barnabas Ikyo

Deputy Centre Leader: Dr Sylvester Obaike Adejo

Centre’s Website: https://www.cefterbsu.edu.ng/

University’s Website: 

Contact: enquiry@cefterbsu.edu.ng

 

Post-Harvest losses constitute the major factor contributing to food insecurity in Sub-Sahara Africa but are often overlooked. It is estimated that Africa losses food valued at US $4.0 billion yearly due to post-harvest losses. This serious shortfall leads to stunted development, malnutrition, diseases and death of millions of children. Post-harvest technologies currently in use are either too expensive or unsuitable for local environments. Chemicals which are widely used have often proved hazardous.

The WHO estimates that 3 million farmers in developing countries experience food poisoning from pesticides and about 18,000 deaths are recorded yearly. Contaminated food contributes to 1.5 billion cases of diarrhoea resulting in 3 million deaths of children yearly.

Benue State located in the middle belt of Nigeria and usually regarded as the food basket of the nation produces a wide range of crops ranging from grains, tubers, to fruits and vegetables. Huge quantities of these crops are lost due to lack of adequate post-harvest technologies.

Nigerian and indeed African teachers and researchers need to be equipped with adequate facilities to be able to utilize multidisciplinary approaches to embark on high capacity building through teaching, conduct of cutting edge research and promotion of active outreach programmes to address post-harvest food losses. Through the support of the World Bank, the Benue State University has established the Africa Centre of Excellence for Food Technology and Research (CEFTER) to address these challenges. The success of CEFTER will depend on the strong and long standing partnerships between academic, research and extension institutions in Nigeria and the sub region.

The mandate of CEFTER is to promote teaching, research and extension in post- harvest sciences, enhance agricultural productivity and industrial output for the socio-economic advancement of Nigeria and Africa.

The educational research and outreach goals of CEFTER are:

  1. 1. To develop a critical mass of well-trained African students in control of post-harvest losses.
  2. 2. To empower African Researchers to identify technologies that will reduce post-harvest losses.
  3. 3. Development of Technologies through applied research for reducing post-harvest losses.
  4. 4. Engage communities, farmers and industries in dissemination of technologies in post-harvest food losses.

 

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