Abuja — Not less than $180 million has been approved by the World Bank to assist all federal tertiary teaching and research institutions in support of science and technology education in Nigeria.

Federal Government has made available over 17,800 local and international journals for teaching and research in all higher institutions through the National Virtual Library it launched in Abuja.

The Senior Education Specialist of the World Bank, Dr Tunde Adekola, made this known at a one-day workshop on Strategies on ICT Development and Access to Affordable Bandwidth for universities, research and higher institutions, yesterday in Abuja.

Speaking at the forum convened by the Association of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities and the Mac Arthur Foundation, Adekola noted the grant was aimed at assisting the institutions in the area science and technology education specifically for federal universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and research institutions in the country.

Said he, "It means that any federal higher and research institutes can now have access to resources to improve the quality of teaching, learning and research in their institutions. The facility has become effective because all the agreement has been signed. By next week, the first part of $20m will come to Nigeria. The money will be coming in bits like that. "Based on our study, we identified three disconnect factors in Nigeria's educational system. The first is at the output level where many graduates complain that it is very difficult for them to get jobs.

"Unfortunately, the employers of labour are equally complaining that the type of knowledge students acquire at the universities are not what they are looking for.

"The second disconnect is at the point of entry. Lecturers are complaining that the students the schools admit do not have the right kind of education at the secondary level and the third is the informal and formal. There is connection between what students learn in the classrooms with what is practical."

Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, Prof Julius Okogie, who performed the launch of the Virtual Library on behalf of the Minister of Education, Dr Igwe Aja-Nwachukwu, said the library would encourage research and innovation in universities.

According to him, the phase of the project we are launching today "is a major intervention aimed at providing access to a huge collection of latest journals published world wide to all students and staff of Nigerian universities.

"With over 17,800 journals and books, we expect that this will significantly boost research and scholarship and enhance the quality of graduates from the Nigerian university system.

He explained that the NVL has over 5,000 locally digitalised journals, a robust collection of international resources dating back to 1937, as well as a robust collection of databases of Ebsco host resources."