By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka (UNIZIK) on Monday suspended its programme at the Confucius Institute which teaches Chinese language, out of fear of the Coronavirus (Covid-19).

The Institute, which is running the programme in partnership with the university, also runs an exchange programme with some affiliate Universities in China.

The closure of the Institute was disclosed by the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Charles Esimone, during a press conference to unveil its programme for the forthcoming 14th convocation ceremony.

He 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 the disease broke out early this year, we had to suspend the programme and stop them from coming back immediately.”

Esimone explained that because of the importance attached to the programme, the university is considering starting the programme online, to fill the void.

“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.”

According to him, all the effort have impacted on the quality of learning in the institution.

The VC stressed 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.