By Ashemiriogwa Emmanuel
The Akwa Ibom State government has announced plans to establish a college of science and technology with the collaboration of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) in the areas of personnel training and manpower development.
The Governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel, said this on Monday while receiving a delegation from UNILAG, his Alma Mata, led by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe.
According to the Governor, the college will run as an intermediary programme to prepare students for science and bridge the gap of effective science learning preceding tertiary education.
Speaking at the meeting, which was held at the Government House in Uyo, he said that the state was ready to carry out collaborative programs and entrepreneurial courses packaged to establish students after their school year.
This will see the rearrangement of the curriculum of education generally and that of Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU).
“So, we are trying to rejig the curricular, we want to bridge a gap of intermediary education the way you see in other places, so we are thinking of establishing a College of Science and Technology that will serve as an intermediate programme that will prepare people to come into science
“Because in most cases students leave secondary school and gain admissions into the University, and most secondary schools don’t have the same standards, so we are trying to bridge that gap and it is an area we need a whole lot of assistance,” Mr Emmanuel disclosed.
Soliciting collaborative efforts, the Governor added, “We want collaboration with you in our tertiary institution AKSU. I’m sure the Commissioner for Education with Vice-Chancellor of AKSU will make a presentation at the exco very soon in these areas we want collaboration especially in the area of training our people, lecturers and a whole lot, this is because the original vision of that institution was to specialize in science and technology.”
Mr Emmanuel further disclosed that preparations were in top gear to formalize empowerment programs at the skills acquisition centre established by the state government to create job opportunities for Youths.
He then called on the University of Lagos to partner with the state in areas of manpower development and entrepreneurial courses in the centre.
In response, Professor Ogundipe lauded the efforts of the Akwa Ibom government in areas of industrialization and power and expressed readiness to partner with the state.
He said, “We are bringing on board two major things, we are ready to collaborate with you concerning the young university, just like the Borno State University that we are going to train their lecturers and some of their lectures who had to do PhD we will be able to assist them because of the collaboration we have with other tertiary institution outside the country it will be easy for them to do their research work.
“The second thing is a collaboration with the government in areas of studies, you want to test your feasibility, and we will do it.”
