National President, ITAN, Dr. Jimson Olufuye said at the weekend that this has become imperative to ensure that schools have access to educational computers, as first step towards the deepening of IT at grassroots levels.
ITAN, therefore decided to use EITPIN-08 scheduled to hold at the Centre for Information and Technology Systems (CITS), University of Lagos (UNILAG), Akoka, Yaba, Lagos on Thursday, next week to resuscitate the initiative.
“We at ITAN have decided to resuscitate our earlier initiative, the Computer In School Initiative now christened Old Students Computer In School Initiative (OS CISI),” he said.
He added the objective of the initiative to facilitate deployment of computers to old students primary and secondary schools as its first level of implementation.
The second level, he said, would require the deployment of computers to old students-nominated schools apart from their alma mata.
“The first and second levels deployments could actually run pari-passu,” he asserted, adding that the third level would be deployment of PCs to third party nominated schools across the six geo-political regions of the country.
He explained that the computers involved could be fairly used but not below Pentium III 128 Megabyte Random Access Memory (MB RAM), or brand new systems that could be as may be recommended by the sponsor of the school.
Dr. Olufuye emphasised that based on strategic partnership with Microsoft and local software developers through Cognitive Software, ITAN plans to power each system with Microsoft Windows XP, MS Office 2003 Suite, MS Student Encarta 2005, MS Educational software, and Cognitive educational packages at the first instance. “An option with Linux has an alternate standard platform which is still on the table,” he said.
He pointed out that a minimum of five computers would be star-networked with a fairly used or brand new laserjet/deskjet printer, even as the equipment would be made Internet ready but not connected to the Internet.
“It is hoped that the Galaxy Backbone Internet Infrastructure will extend to benefiting schools as soon as it is deployed. At least one 5kva stabilizer and 5 650va UPS’ shall also be part of the package,” he said.
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