Egwu commends Omatek’s e-learning scheme

Minister of Education, Dr. Sam Egwu, has commended Omatek Ventures Plc over its positive contributions towards the development of education in the country, saying the firm’s e-learning initiative is adding value.

Speaking recently at the launching of Omatek e-Learning Initiative and the unveiling of Omatek 8 and 10 inches Smartbooks for Schools in Abuja, Dr. Egwu said the administration of President Umaru Yar’adua recently unveiled the Ministry of Education’s Road Map, which is intended to harness and give direction to the Federal Government’s efforts aimed at strengthening capacity building and quality of education at all levels.

He also said the Omatek e-learning initiative is therefore a viable means of adding value to the Federal Government’s programme on e-Learning.

In addition, he reiterated that the FG road map considered the advantages of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) will bring to the academia, stressing that the unveiling of the Omatek products for the education sector is a testimony to the role the private sector could continue to play in the actualization of the country’s hopes for a brighter future for education.

Chairman, Omatek Ventures Plc, Dr. Tim Farinre, in his speech to the occasion, said, the Omatek e-learning initiative is a one-stop shop which provides a platform to ensure that information and communication technology tools are deployed to schools/classrooms under a carefully structured learning environment, equipped with internet connectivity to create virtual connectivity between students and teachers/lecturers. Thus he said, also involves the deployment of a robust content /curriculum development.

Also speaking, the Group Managing Director (GMD) Omatek, Mrs. Florence Seriki said the launch of Omatek e-learning initiative would help to transform the education sector, as well as create the needed path towards achieving sustainable growth especially in the development of ICT in all cadre of schools across the nation.

Seriki pointed out the scheme is a holistic solution to consolidate Omatek’s position in the education sector and would involve the provision of internet connectivity via the Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) technology to stimulate the provision of hot-spots around schools, thus creating an enabling environment for teachers and students to deploy their Wirreless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) connectivity at will.

According to her, the e-Learning scheme is divided into modules for ease of deployment and these modules will help to streamline the processes where the practice of teaching and learning can enjoy intervention by the introduction of IT tools required to create an e-Learning environment across schools.

Mrs. Seriki said the hardware components of the scheme; the Omatek 8” and 10” Smartbooks, are specially designed with 60 Giga Bytes (GB) harddisk space and 512mb and 1Gb Random Access Memory (RAM) respectively for students and teachers in the educational sector and equipped with robust Wi-Fi coverage, portable and come in various attractive colours.

She explained that alternatively, there is available the 15.4” laptop for Teachers/Leacturers.

Also available under the scheme is the Omatek All-In-One compact PC which comes with a 14-17” flat screen with inbuilt CPU and Monitor. It is ideal for schools, computer/ ICT laboratories. The Omatek Compact comes with 80 gb HDD, combined PC and CPU, Wireless Mouse, Wi-Fi ready and its equipped with DVD Writer.

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