By Isaac Aimurie, Henry Oqua and Nosakhare Agbonigiarhuoyi
The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has said that technical colleges in the State will be transformed into production centers to boost local production of goods consumed in the country.
Obaseki said this while receiving members of the Benin Technical College Old Students Association, who paid him a courtesy visit on Tuesday, June 7, 2022 in Government House, Benin City, the State capital.
Welcoming his guests, the Governor maintained that his administration is passionate about technical education and would sustain the transformation of technical colleges in the State.
He said: “The reasons are not far-fetched. I assumed work on the 14th of November, 2016, and my first port of call was the Benin Technical College, because it was clear that we had to send a new signal and set a new direction for our society.
“The basis for sustainable development in most societies is the capacity of members of that society to create the things they use. That was the basis on which the Benin Empire thrived.
“For us as a government, we’ve realized, as we look into the future, that we have no choice; because it’s so obvious that this whole dependence on imported manufactured goods for our existence is not tenable anymore; and that is one of the major reasons for unemployment and joblessness, apart from government policies, is the lack of skills, lack of skilled people, skilled artisans, because we just look down on technical training.”
Obaseki added: “We will continue the refurbishment of the buildings and we are putting in infrastructure, particularly electricity and we want to add production centers in there so that there are laboratories for the children to learn from, there are auto mechanic workshops, building material workshops and structural workshops, food processing workshops and bakeries. That is the goal, so that we can elevate the quality of manpower that we require for productive activities.”
Earlier, the president of the association, Rev. Friday Ebuze, who led the BTC old students, expressed appreciation to the Governor for reviving technical education in the State and for repositioning the Benin Technical College to deliver on its original vision through massive revamp of the institution.
He appealed to the Governor to strengthen collaboration with the Canadian Government, which he said was pivotal to the establishment of the college and sought the change of the school’s name from Government Science and Technical College (GSTC), to its former name; Benin Technical College (BTC).
In her remark, the Commissioner for Education, Dr. Joan Osa Oviawe, explained that there is a shift in the approach to education in the State.
Dr. Osa Oviawe said: “There is a shift already in line with the vision of the Governor; and that shift is that, we are moving away from poverty alleviation programmes to wealth creation.
“So currently, it’s no longer about having students come to our technical schools to learn how to do mobile phone repairs. Now, we are looking at mechatronics engineering, we are looking at robotics, we are looking at computer crafts, to things that will really enable graduates of our technical colleges to exist in the 21 Century and beyond.”
