The Role of Private Higher Education Institutions towards Strengthening ICT in Ethiopia

Abstract

Development in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become a critical success factor for economic, political and social development. Those who have access to information at the right time with high level of accuracy could cope up with the underlying changes in market demands, new products and new technologies. Due to this, information has turned out to be the key resource. Information and Communication Technology has become the key technology. In spite of this fact, like many of the less developed countries, the development of ICT in Ethiopia is at its infant stage. One of the challenges in ICT development in Ethiopia is lack of human resource, which in turn is the result of lack of academic institutions in this area. Unlike other training programs, this program presupposes substantial investment in ICT infrastructure for which public institution couldn’t solely afford. Hence, although some of the public institutions like Addis Ababa University have shown significant developments in this regard, the demand for ICT training programs has persisted and has drawn the attention of PHEIs. As a result, a number of private colleges have launched training programs in this area. Therefore, this paper strives to pinpoint the role of PHEIs in promoting ICT development in Ethiopia. It attempted to assess the ICT training programs offered by some selected PHEIs together with their intake capacities. To achieve the stated objectives, the study utilized secondary and primary data from selected higher education institutions and analyzed the data through descriptive statistics. In line with this objective, results of this study have shown that there is a high demand for ICT training programs although there is limited space for applicants in public institutions. For instance, out of the total 3,858 applicants for the 2004/2005 SIST (School of Information Science and Technology) program of the Addis Ababa University, only 10.4% of the total number of applicants have secured admission in both Computer Science and Information Science programs in the day as well as evening programs. Thus, the need for other alternative institutions seems a necessity. To this end, PHEIs are offering options and hence playing vital roles through filling the gap between the demand and provision of these training programs. The outcome of this study has also indicated that the growth of PHEIs is in favor of ICT training programs. This is confirmed through a consistent growth in the percentage share of enrolments in ICT training programs in the last four years in all the PHEIs covered in this study. Hence, it is plausible to conclude that PHEIs are playing a vital role in the struggle to transform the nation to the Information Society.