Govt restates commitment to science, technology, skills acquisition

Minister of State for Education, Prof. Anthony Anwukah, has assured that the Federal Government would reorganise the country’s education system to place more emphasis on technology, science and skills acquisition in education.

He gave the assurance during the commissioning of a 1,200- bed space girls’ hostel, built by the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) of Federal Science and Technical College (FSTC), Yaba, Lagos.

The minister who said that the government has made budgetary provisions to address various issues facing the country’s education system in its bid to revamp the sector explained, “The thinking of government is to reengineer our education endeavour towards technology, science and skills acquisition. It is in the blueprint of the present administration that there would be total and complete emphasis on science, technology and skills acquisition. That is the thrust of the government, and we are more than ever before determined to actualise this mandate within this fiscal year.”

Anwukah urged Nigerians not to rate the present government’s achievements in the sector just yet, as every success recorded was done within the purview of the allocation of the last administration.

“A lot has been done in the sector, but that was done within the purview of the last budgetary provisions made by the last administration. It will be a lot better to hold back and call for a scorecard when this administration works with the new allocation,” he said.

Anwukah who also embarked on facility tour of the college, promised that serious effort would be made to replace aging machines/equipment at the college’s workshops.

“I am delighted with what I have seen here today, but somehow depressed because most of the machines I saw are as old as Lord Lugard’e era. We intend to move forward and never backward, we have taken very cursory notes of what we have seen, and will put it together and make sure that those machines are replaced,” he added.

He informed the gathering that owing to happenings in some unity colleges, the government was examining again, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the PTA and the colleges, so that each party would understand the scope of its operations.

Principal of the college, Rev Chris Ugorji, informed the minister that the college requires massive funding if it must successfully execute its core mandate

He, however, stated that despite the challenges confronting the school, it has recorded huge success in quality delivery. But, “At the moment, we have inadequate classrooms; we contend with epileptic power supply, which has taken serious toll on our finances as we expend a large chunk of our finances on diesel to power some machines.