CHALLENGES AND IMPROVEMENT STRATEGIES OF COMPUTER SCIENCE PROGRAMME IN NIGERIAN POLYTECHNICS IN POST COVID-19 ERA


This paper is based on the study conducted in 2021 to identify and analyze the challenges facing Computer Science Programme in Nigerian Polytechnics and improvement strategies. Survey method was used for the study and data was collected from 180 Computer Science Lecturers, Technologists and students through questionnaire. The respondents were selected from Federal Polytechnic Oko, Federal Polytechnic Nekede, Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti, Federal Polytechnic Bida and Federal Polytechnic Kaduna. The study results showed that 58.33% of the respondents agreed that the traditional learning method used affect learning negatively while 88.88% agreed that lack of learning facilities pose big challenge to Computer science programme. The results also showed that the respondents agreed that over population of students in classroom, lack of qualified academic staffs, lack of incentive for academic staffs, lack of encouragement of students, poor conduction of practical and execution of projects negatively affect Computer Science programme at corresponding percentage of 91.11%, 61.11%, 56.66%, 75%, 69.94% and 63.88%. All the respondents agreed that instability in academic calendar and students’ non-seriousness negatively affect Computer Science programme. Improvement strategies based on the findings of the study includes: use of qualified lecturers and technologists (academic staffs), modification of the learning method, regular training of academic staffs, provision of facilities and incentives to academic staffs, encouraging students through scholarships, reduction of number of students in class to 40, integration of time management in the curriculum and adoption of online dispute resolution. It was recommended that the strategies be adopted in order to improve learning in this post COVID-19 era.


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