A former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, says that artificial intelligence can be used as a tool to provide solution for millions of out-of-school children in Nigeria.

Obasanjo made this assertion at the third international colloquium and 50th anniversary of learning opportunities organised by the Distance Learning Institute (DLI), University of Lagos (UNILAG), on Thursday in Lagos.

The theme of the Colloquium was: “The Massive and Ubiquitous Invasion of the Education Landscape By Artificial Intelligence: Whither Open, Flexible and Distance Learning?”

Obasanjo said that according to statistics, over 20 million Nigerian children are out-of-school, adding that this was part of the major crisis Nigeria’s education sector was facing.

“We have an education crisis, and artificial intelligence and open distance learning are some tools we can use to get out of such crisis.

“I also enrolled in an open distance learning university, because it is what I preach that I will practice and it worked out.

“Today, we hear that there should no difference between distance learning certificate and world learning certificate.

“I commend what the university management is doing concerning innovation development within and outside the institution,” Obasanjo said.

He noted that distance learning and teaching would solve the issues of accommodation and transportation in the university.

In her opening remarks, Prof. Folashade Ogunsola, Vice-Chancellor, UNILAG, said that it was proud of distance learning, because it recognised the future of education was going to be technology based.

She said that it had been recognised that Nigeria, with the population of 226 million people, 89 percent of which were between 15 years and 30 years old, had a lot of people to educate.

“Currently, at any point in time, we have about two million people in the University system, and a quarter of these are in distance learning, while the remaining 1.5 million are taken care of by the 246 universities.

“It means that the way to go is distance learning, the bodiless universities and technology has to drive it, if we are to take care of our education.

“UNILAG is one of the most innovative university in the world, because we are not afraid to embrace change to improve the education system.

“When there was stigma about distance learning, in UNILAG, we only realised that the difference between distance learning and degree learning is the mode of delivery,” Ogunsola said.

She added that the university had started working to ensure that the DLI certificate would not be different from other degree certificates, a move that the university ‘s senate had approved.

“We also recognise that as a university, for us distance learning needs to be innovative too.

“Another way to address distance learning is introduction of distance teaching in the university.

“We did distance teaching during COVID-19, right now we are losing lecturers due to the ‘Japa Syndrome’, and we must find ways to engage them irrespective of where they are in the world.

“We will fully look into innovative ways of distance teaching. By next year, we will have started distance teaching for this programme,” Ogunsola said.

The Keynote Speaker, Prof. Ramesh Sharma, Director of Distance Education, University of Guyana, South America, said that Artificial Intelligence (AI) had an impact on open distance and online education careers.

Sharma said that AI was not a threat to people losing job at all, because some people were afraid of AI but they already had a robot vacuuming their floors.

“The different levels of artificial intelligence includes: artificial super intelligence, general intelligence and narrow intelligence.

“An AI-empowered educational ecosystem for distance learners, for students, will mean that we will become better and faster learner, which AI can do,” he said.

Sharma added that AI could enhance teaching and learning by improving academic outcomes by predicting students’ success and identifying at-risk students.

“It also helps and assist in data analysis, trend identification and provides insights from research data,” he said.

Prof. Risikat Dauda, Director, Distance Learning Institute, UNILAG, said that part of its commitment was to promote the responsible use of AI for educational purposes.

Dauda said that AI incursion in the education sector was rapidly reshaping traditional approaches to teaching and learning paradigms.

The Chairman of the programme was Prof. Kabiru Isyaku,  Pro-Chancellor, Khalifa Isyaku Rabiu University (KHAIRUN), Kano; Prof. Tayo Arulogun, Vice-Chancellor, Miva Open University, Abuja was also present amongst others. (NAN)