- Sapele Polytechnic Not Abandoned –Aniagwu
BY SUNNY EGEDE
Delta State Commissioner for Works (Rural Roads) and Public Information, Mr. Charles Aniagwu, has assured of Governor Sheriff Oborevwori’s commitment to sustained investment in the educational sector to keep pace with global trends.
Subsequently, Aniagwu reacting to questions regarding Sapele Polytechnic at Deghele/ Iriabome communities, Elume district in Sapele Local Government Area, said that the state government places priority on provision of functional and quality educational facilities across the state, hence the polytechnic is not abandoned.
Aniagwu, who emphasized the importance of equipping students with skills and knowledge needed for a competitive future, disclosed this on a national television programme monitored by The Pointer in Asaba.
According to him, there is the need to understand the issue of functionality; education is not like opening a biscuit shop, where everybody can come and buy biscuits.
“There is a reason for establishing institutions, and I told you that we needed to look at the issues of quality and functionality as part of the aftermath of the 2016 education summit organized by the state government”.
“We had an education summit in 2016 and we brought in professionals from across the country to assist us on a needs assessment in the education sector and to make sure that our students do not remain in school more than necessary due to strikes”. “The main goal of that summit was to ensure that our students get the kind of quality education that can position them to compete globally. Our education philosophy is to have accessible and functional institutions and not just to establish higher institutions that could make us to be seen to be politically correct”.
“Prior to the establishment of three new universities by the Ifeanyi Okowa-led administration, we had three Polytechnics in Ogwashi-Uku, Ozoro and Otefe-Oghara. These polytechnics were established in the three Senatorial districts and that is in addition to three colleges of education in the three Senatorial districts.
“We had the main campus of the Delta State University in the Central senatorial district with other campuses in the South and the North”.
“So what we did as a government was to continue in the assessment of what we need; not to play politics. If you go and establish three polytechnics and you have 300 hundred students in one and possibly 500 lecturers and at the end of the day it becomes mushroom, how have you helped the state with that? The Commissioner said the new Universities were established based on a feasibility study which indicated the trend students were gravitating to.
“When we examined the trend we saw that many people want to navigate towards university education and the University we had did not have enough carrying capacity.
“It was on the basis that we established three additional universities with the Polytechnic at Ozoro converted to Delta State University of Science and Technology and later Southern Delta University, the campus at Asaba became Dennis Osadebay University and the College of Education at Agbor converted to University of Delta.
“In Nigeria today, no state can boost the number of state owned higher institutions that we have to the extent that out of our ten federal constituencies, nine have higher institutions.
“In the last nine and half years, no higher institution in Delta has embarked on any strike. All the strikes you have seen across the federation, our schools don’t join.
“They don’t join because we try to meet up with those demands to ensure functionality of our institutions. We don’t just say go and put a polytechnic or a university somewhere without having a feasibility study.
“It was a feasibility study that revealed university education had become much more attractive to our people and that was why we went that way.
“We have not jettisoned the establishment of more institutions but we needed to move steadily such that we do not bite more than we can chew per time.”
Speaking further, Aniagwu said, a campus of the Southern Delta University was established at Orerokpe in the same federal constituency with Sapele and using facilities from the technical college being constructed by the state government.
“Governor Oborevwori has been running fast and steadily on the lane of functional and efficient education system that caters to the needs of the present and future”.
“As an administration, we do not have the intention to abolish any institution so established but we will remain unwavering in our efforts at proceeding with educational needs assessment” He said the Oborevwori’s administration would continue to promote the trajectory of quality and functional education for Deltans in line with the administration’s MORE Agenda.
