Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka has revealed that as a result of the outbreak of the Coronavirus (Covid-19), the institution has suspended the Confucius Institute programme which teaches the Chinese language and other country to country relations of the Asian giant.
The Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof Charles Esimone disclosed this to journalists during a press conference to unveil its programme for the forthcoming 14th convocation ceremony of the institution.
Esimone said, “Yes, the Coronavirus affected some of our programmes, especially the Confucius Institute.
“Last December, most of our Chinese lecturers in that institute went on holiday, but when disease broke early this year, we had to suspend the programme, stop them from coming back immediately.”
Esimone said that because of the importance of the programme, the university is considering starting the programme online, to fill the void.
He said the University had also asked its Chinese lecturers, who travelled for Christmas vacation, not to return to the University while those who were around had been barred from travelling.
The VC said the Chinese course under Confucius Institute of the University would now be run online.
He added that because of the efforts of the management of the university, it has made a great leap into the first 1,000 universities in the university ranking, as again being above number 2,000 previously.
“In the academics we have done a lot. We have rejigged the appraisal process.
“We have looked at quality of teaching, and as we speak we have introduced clock-in clock-out system. We monitor lecturers and students in examination using CCTV to ensure the lecturers are doing their job, and to also stop students from cheating during examinations.”
He said all these have impacted on the quality of learning in the institution.
