WHEN WILL THE VARSITY ADOPT TECHNOLOGY?

By Mohammed Doyo

Moi University is one of the few good universities in Kenya but it would be among the very best in the country if it realized we are21st century era where technology is everything. Moi lags behind when it comes to adopting digital methods in providing services. Which feeling crosses your mind when you see a queue of over a thousand first year students lining up just to get registered while the same service would have been provided by the click of the mouse from home on available reliable soft wares?

It always baffles me why our university is reluctant in adopting technology yet in every school and department, information technology related courses are common! The school of information sciences purely offers tech-related courses while the school of engineering offers advanced ones such as computer and software engineering. The big question, which sages have asked in different epochs is: why offer these courses to impart students with skills and knowledge to be useful in the ‘outside world’ while our ‘inside world’ is in desperate need of technology? How hard is it to liase with these students the lecturers or the alumni to develop soft wares which can improve service delivery in the campus?

‘Queuing with a difference’ should have been our motto. From the mess, to the cashier, to first year student registration, getting exam results, to the university’s only health unit, you won’t miss the queues, thanks to the manual ‘ISO certified’ ways of enhancing service delivery. Last year, first year students were fainting in the long queues after standing for over six hours amidst pouring rains and the usual Eldoret’s chilly weather. This time round, it’s bound to be worse! The varsity has augmented its first year enrollment to over 4500 in main campus alone which means the queues will be longer!

Higher institutions of learning such as Kenyatta, JKUAT and University of Nairobi will speak of student portal, which involves databases of all students available in a single software. The students can pay fees, get exam results, book residential houses online. In Moi, student portal is purely a foreign word. A factor that has over the years made us totally different! After all aren’t we a university with a difference?

In other news, many students have lodged serious complains on the 3rd Eye wall, against the dysfunctional Moi University website, the only online presence the university has. Claims of the server being down most of the times, unavailable information on the website, outdated information continue to flow in day in day out! This situation ought to be corrected as soon as possible. By the way, is anyone from the ICT department, that is if it happens to exists, reading this?

The perennial gargantuan problem of room booking and allocation is here. The accommodation field has been clogged by impunity, the game of who is who in the university and the usual politics of the known for the known thanks to the manual balloting and room allocations allowing room for manipulation by the ‘strong forces’ in the campus. When will accommodation field take the technological step? The chief administrative officer Professor sang, the hostel manager Chesang, The housekeeper Mrs. Tanui and accommodation director Ogega should answer that.

MUSO Directors must wake up from their deep slumber and push for the adoption of technology, a topic that has been dominant in all the past campaigns period! In previous occasions, the SGC has cited the university’s rigidness in implementing changes especially in the technology field but the big question remains: for how long will we, the students continue to use manual services in this ISO certified institution while digital services can be made available? Only time will tell.

The writer is a second year journalism student and the immediate former Features Editor of the 3rd Eye.