December 13
Three months into my 1 year tenure at Dire Dawa University as VSO International Volunteer, I have to say I am having a rare opportunity and the best personal and professional experience . My role at Dire Dawa University is to serve as an ICT (Information Communication Technology) adviser for the University leadership to ensure the establishment of an IT Department and introduction ion of campus wide ICT services. Being one of the recently opened Universities (Dire Dawa was opened in 2007), Dire Dawa University is still in the process of being established as a fully functional University although it is currently serving about 7000 students across 5 schools; Social Science, Natural Science, Business and Economics, Institute of Technology and Law.
So far, I have been primary involved in building the servers, and the physical networks to enabled for the introduction of ICT services to the whole university. The University had invested on a high-speed wireless technology that can network the entire campus wireless and I am involved on all aspect of implementing this network, including the proper construction of the antenna on top of the Technology building, where the Wireless Access Points will be mounted . Although we currently only have 512kbp internet connection, we are starting the process to get a fiber-optic high-speed broadband connection. This is easy said that done as dealing with Ethiopian Telecommunication (the main and only and government owned Internet Provider in Ethiopia) itself requires patience and persistence.
Part of my job is to serve all the Academic, Administration and Student service offices by establishing and introducing ICT services so that their work and services are supported by technology. The Academics are the schools and departments that are in desperate need for a reliable ICT service for learning, teaching and research. This means having the computer labs for students and teachers as well as the education and training for the proper utilization of these resources, such as internet connections, software tools, etc. I have had to guest lecture an 3rd year Computer Science course and it is not a bit exaggeration to say that the average high school senior in US is more computer literate than these 3rd year Computer Science students.
To put this into context, the students came across all over Ethiopia, from cities and towns often with no prior exposure to computer and computer concepts during their secondary education. Plus, the lack of ICT facilities, there is only 1 General Access student lab for the entire campus, make it difficult for students to get an opportunity for more exposure to computers and computer concepts outside of lecture and labs. One must also mention the qualification and quality of the instructors, all of them not any older than myself and with no prior teaching and working experience. Let me put it this way, the 3rd year Computer Science students that I have just told you about, it is likely that they will be placed somewhere else as University instructors when they graduate next year. Yes, there is such a desperate lack of Human Resources. As a diaspora living in abroad, does this NOT make you came and give back? I have to tell you, although they are a whole lot that makes it difficult to fully contribute your experience and skills, there is much much gratification to have the opportunity to try do so…
The Administration offices are all the offices are responsible for the proper management of the University, such as having the proper software tools for enrolling students and keeping student records, asset management software for tracking University assets (Computers, projectors, printers, staff…etc). Those with Management Information System (MIS) background and in project management can relate to this. I have not done much work on this respect yet except to be involved in some aspect of making sure proper computer and technology tools are being purchased by the University and the vendors are delivering the expected specification of computers, printers, etc. This is such a difficult task since no one in Finance and at the University warehouse can tell weather a newly purchased printer, laptop and computer has the correct memory, hard disk and other essential specification. The task of distributing to end users (staff, etc), managing, maintain and tracking is also a big challenge. Just last week, I have had to tell a Hardware vendor from Addis to take back all the printers he delivered; the Finance department had purchased 20 large 2 tray prints, but the 20 printers delivered where simple black and white HP printers with only 1 tray-150 paper capacity. As it is too common here, I was offered a 1000 birr bribe and accept the delivery. Although the Ethiopian government had put in place a sophisticated process to eliminate corruption, this still seems an issue that is not going to go away so soon and easily. To purchase ICT equipment, for example, the University bid Committee is required to announce a public bid to give every business (small and big) an opportunity to complete for the business and follow a defined selection process that often takes weeks. This is great since not a single individual can decide where to purchase equipment (hence avoiding favoritism and monopoly), but the process is long and often tedious. From a personal experience, for example, I have had to wait 4 weeks for a simple construction materials (for the wireless antenna) that costs about 2000 birr. Consequently, I am forced to wait over 2 months for the construction of 1 2000 birr pole to implement a half a million networking equipment. It seems a laughing matter, doesn’t it?
Student services include Libraries , dormitories, etc. For example, I have been involved on acquiring an e-library software and collection for the library so that students can access books online since there is basically no books at the library. The library also does not have any software for cataloging, checking out, and loaning books; everything is a manual process. Even students have to literally browse library book shelves to find available books. It is not only my job to identifying the software tools to be used for such purposes, but also to establish the physical and virtual network s (eg: building servers, laying out cables, etc) to allow for such tools to be used across the three libraries. Currently, I have fixed a simple PHP based application that allows students to access a random collection of PDF e-books, journals that were downloaded from the web by students and library staff. I have put about 20GB of PDF files on the web server and student can use a simple searching tool to search by titles, authors and departments. You see, the task of developing the application is simple but the challenge is cataloging the books with the proper tags (name, title, author, subject, department, etc) so that students can find what they are looking for easily.
On top of these and most importantly, my job is to establish the ICT department and the job structure so that all of these services can be supported and sustained in the future. Currently, there is only two of us that are considered ICT staff and are trying to introduce all these services to the University. This itself is a challenge since the University does not have the budget to hire ICT staff, it seems they are still waiting for the budget to be release from Ministry of Education. To give some ideas, a System Admin with a reasonable experience can be hired for a monthly salary of about 2000 birr (about $125 with the current exchange rate ($1=16 birr). So, the annual salary turns out to be about only $2000/ 32000 birr? Anyone got a $2000 birr to spare? I can use it to pay for an ICT staff for a whole year!
Filed from my House in Dire Dawa
