Delta State Governor, Senator Dr Ifeanyi Okowa has challenged Polytechnic lecturers to pay emphasis on multi-disciplinary research and practical life skills to ensure that Polytechnic graduates can be self employed.
The Governor who spoke on 19/10/15, while inaugurating the Governing Council of the Delta State Polytechnic, Ozoro observed that the current educational system where graduates come out looking to the government or the few available private enterprises for gainful employment was wrong.
Rt. Hon. Funkekeme Solomon is the Chairman of the Governing Council while Hon. Joe Adigwe, Hon. Gabriel Alebe and Chief Mrs Oti Agoba are members of the Council.
“We are deeply convinced that the solution to the massive youth unemployment that we are facing in the country, and especially in our state, lies not with certificate acquisition, but with skills building through technical cum vocational education,” the Governor stated.
“Students must be thought and equipped with entrepreneurial skills, problem-solving abilities, principles of personal effectiveness, leadership development, business and crisis management, as well as current trends in business and ethics,” Okowa challenged the polytechnic community.
Governor Okowa reiterated, “these should be complemented with regular skills building and training programmes to upgrade and update their knowledge base.”
“The development of technical education is at the very core of our S.M.A.R.T agenda because we believe that until we get our youths to acquire the requisite technical and vocational skills, we are not building a future for them,” the Governor noted.
“No meaningful national development can be achieved without sound, qualitative technical education and in Delta State, three of our technical colleges are currently being rehabilitated and refocused to equip students with the knowledge and entrepreneurial skills for business, trade and commerce.” The governor observed.
He challenged the Governing Council and management of the Polytechnic to pay attention to improved curriculum and quality of teaching so as to equip their products with the requisite mind-set and knowledge to excel in today’s rapidly changing world.
Responding on behalf of members of the Council, Hon. Solomon thanked Governor Okowa for deeming them fit to serve the government and people of Delta State, as Chairman and members of the Polytechnic Governing Council.
Quoting copiously from the Poem, The Road not taken, by Robert Frost and Dennis Osadebey’s Who Buys My Thoughts, Hon, Fukekeme hailed Governor Okowa for his courageous and committed initiatives in takeing decisions that reflect the realities of the present times, adding that in time, the positive results of these actions would manifest in moving Delta to a higher level.
He then assured that he and his new Board will will carry out their functions diligently, within the boaundaries of their operational limits, even as he pledged that the Governing council would adopt Governor Okowa’s address as the working document of its operations and work harmoniously with the management of the institution to fulfil the mandate and desire of repositioning Ozoro polytechnic as one of the leading technical institutions in Nigeria and globally.
