Tanzania keen to collaborate with Kerala's IT sector

Thiruvananthapuram, PTI: A delegation of Tanzania's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology on Sunday expressed interest in understanding and collaborating with Kerala's IT sector with focus in the fields of integrated development of higher education and the overall ecosystem. The visiting team met Technopark CEO Col Sanjeev Nair (Retd), Santhosh C Kurup, Professor of Practice, Digital University Kerala (DUK) and Riji N Das of ICT Academy of Kerala (ICTAK) at Technopark here on Saturday as part of their Indian benchmarking tour.

The objective of the tour was to understand the development of the educational system in India and the advancements made in the education domain, an official statement said. Nair gave insight into Technopark, the first IT Park in the country, and how it benefited the state's IT landscape. He also added how government interventions and support made the Technopark model a success and an ecosystem enabler. The interaction with the delegation is the first step towards collaboration between Tanzania and Kerala's IT sector, it said. Santhosh Kurup gave insight into DUK, the premier institute of Kerala that is digitally empowering the state.

He added that there are immense opportunities of exploring academia-academia and academia-industry collaboration between the two countries. Riji N Das brought out the aspect of how ICTAK is bridging the skill gap to make the students industry ready in the ICT domain. The idea of exploring the possibilities of student exchange programmes with the east African country was also discussed, besides an exchange of academic and industrial expertise in the field of higher education in Tanzania.

Prof Peter Msoffe, who is the Director of Higher Education under Tanzania's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, described the Kerala model as "truly remarkable", the statement said.