Amby Uneze
26 February 2008
Owerri — The Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Education has approved about N8, 300,275, 372 or $6.2 million for Science and Technology Education for Post Basic (STEP-B) projects to cater for about 18 proposals out of the 48 proposed, President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has said.
The Fund, which is being supported by the World Bank is aimed at improving the quality, equitable access to and relevance of Science and Technology Education at the Federal Post Basic level, as well as increase the country's competitiveness in a globalised world.
The President, who disclosed this at the 20th Convocation ceremony of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), recently, said that the World Bank through the STEP-B programme, was willing and ready to support selected research initiatives in any of the universities, polytechnics and other tertiary institutions.
He urged the universities, particularly universities of technologies to access the fund through well articulated and relevant research proposals, adding that the fund is available to both institutions and individual lecturers to access.
The President, who was represented by the Minister of Education, Dr. Igwe Aja-Nwachukwu remarked that the government was working assidously to have the education sector reformed for the betterment of the society, stressing that government encouraged productive dialogue in the sector's transformation objectives.
According to him, our vision of tertiary education in this country is to "advance Nigerian's economic growth and global competitiveness, through the provision of accessible, affordable, relevant, high quality education". To achieve this, he said, government had to make human capital development through quality education as one of its Seven-Point Agenda.
He further disclosed that the Education Ministry through its agency, the National Universities Commission (NUC), introduced the "Nigeria University Teachers Improvement Projects" (NUTIP) and the "Virtual Institute for Higher Education Programme" (VIHEP) to train academics under special agreement in identified areas of deficiency, pedagogy and also forge research collaboration with relevant agencies.
Through the new programmes of the government on education, such as the 'Nigerian Experts and Academics in Diaspora Scheme (NEADS)', the president said government hoped to attract Nigerian experts and academics in the Diaspora back home.
On Information and Technology (IT), he said that the federal government under the present democratic dispensation had already taken steps to evolve the means of integrating the IT culture into the nation's educational system through the "computer-In-school project (CISP)' and the staff Computer Ownership Schemes in collaboration with other stakeholders through the Public Private Partnership Scheme (PPP)."
Yar,Adua expressed delight at FUOT's achievements and commended the Vice Chancellor, Professor Celestine Onwuliri, the Chairman of the Governing Council, Alhaji Faruk Abdullahi, members of the Council, staff and students for their hardwork and dedication to duty.
He noted that the performance of any educational institution, in terms of relevance and quality in solving the problems of the society could be measured by the efficiency and effectiveness of the management in achieving its mandate of training students on how to know, do, be, and live together in civilized society.
Prof. Onwuliri thanked the President Yar'Adua for his continued support to the institution, without which, the university could not have achieved much. A total of 3, 248 students graduated at the ceremony.
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