‘Operational research crucial’

By Yemisi Olaosun

 

Prof.Adedeji Badiru of the Airforce Institute of Technology,Ohio,USA, has stressed the need for operational research to  achieve efficient and effective delivery of education in this era of COVID-19.

He spoke at a webinar organised by the

Institute Of Operational Research and Management Science (IORMS)  on Overcoming Impacts of Covid19 Pandemic:An Operational Research Optimization Approach.

Badiru noted that  since  online education was  now in vogue, education systems must be rejigged to adapt and  sustain the educational enterprise through operational research methods and tools.

He affirmed that the use of the DEJI system model which stands for Design, Evaluation, Justification and Integration,will also help in achieving effective and efficient delivery in the education sector.

“Anywhere we are,we will face resource limitation,many times urgency will develop, sometimes emergency will develop and global demand will always be with us,on top of all of these,we now face the  COVID-19 pandemic.We must usher in all intellectual resources under the umbrella of operational research to do the best job we can do,” he said.

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, stressed the  need for researchers to come together and assist each other in tackling problems and provide possible solutions on how to handle the Coronavirus  pandemic which also affects the educational system.

Also speaking during the conference, the Deputy Vice Chancellor in charge of Development Services UNILAG, Prof. Folasade Ogunsola ,said one of the major problems  of Nigeria is how we operationalize and implement policies.

“COVID-19 has taught us to do a lot of things very differently. Even things we were doing before and one such thing is creating virtual platforms for online lectures,” she said.

The president of IORMS, Prof.Rasheed Ojikutu said the conference was aimed at providing answers to some socio-economic challenges that arose from the Coronavirus pandemic.