Posted by By Olubusuyi Adenipekun on
THE on-going transformation of the education sector in Rivers State is one that is making indigenes of other states green with envy.....
THE on-going transformation of the education sector in Rivers State is one that is making indigenes of other states green with envy.
A few months ago, the state government gave full scholarship to 102 indigenes of the state, spread across its 23 local government areas, to study medicine and engineering courses in Kuban State University of Technology, Krasnodar, Southern Russia which is worth over N175 million. This singular gesture has positively touched the lives of many families in the state.
Besides, the state government has, for some time now, been working relentlessly on the beautification of both primary and secondary schools in the state by demolishing illegal structures erected for various nefarious activities. This beautification exercise is on right now at the state-owned University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt where physical structures, which were not in the original master plan of the institution, are being pulled down.
According to the state Commissioner for Education, Dr. (Mrs) Ngozi Odu, the demolition exercise is taking place because Governor Odili is totally committed to the total reformation of the university to return it to the way it was originally designed, adding that an Environment and Beatification Committee was consequently set up to accomplish this task, the end result of which is to raise the standard of education delivery in the state.
Interestingly, the state governor has approved more full scholarship for 60 students of the state to study in British and American universities in Malaysia, in addition to the 102 students earlier sent to Russia.
In this exclusive interview with Vanguard Education Weekly, Dr. Ngozi Odu speaks on these strides being made in Rivers State as well as the arrangement being put in place to ensure the sustainability of the laudable programmes after the expiration of Odili's tenure in 2007.
Excerpts:
What informed the on-going demolition of physical structures in State's University of Science and Technology?
His Excellency, Governor Peter Odili has geared himself for a total transformation of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt to return it to the way it was originally designed. It is in the spirit of that turn around that the new Pro-Chancellor, who himself is a perfectionist, set-up an Environment and Beautification Committee, and part of what they are set to do is to demolish all illegal structures. This means that you look at the master plan of the institution and see whether the physical structures on the campus is in conformity with the master plan or not. It is basically to bring back sanity into the place and by the end of the day you will now have the actual structures that are supposed to be in the place. And at the end of the day you will have beautiful structures conducive for teaching and learning.
Are the structures not being demolished to remove hide-out of cultists on the campus?
In the first place, those structures are not supposed to be there. If they were not originally there, then nobody will use them as hide-out. Whether these structures are used for cultist action or not, they are not even supposed to be there. That is first and foremost the major reason and of course the other remote reasons are there any way.
Cult attacks have been very frequent in the university.
What steps are being taken by government to halt the ugly incident?
I think it is going down. With this new Pro-Chancellor and the University Council which si composed of very seasoned statesmen and women, with most of them having served in high positions in the university system either as registrar, deputy vice-chancellor or pro-chancellor. They are very very rooted in anything that has to do with the university. They have a clear focus on what they want to do. Sometimes too, when you have clashes, some clashes are not really cultist clashes. Like the clash of the other day, it was a misunderstanding between students and security men. What happened was that they brought some unknown security people to guard the place and the students did not really know their identity, with some of them thinking that they were robbers. It had nothing to do with cultism. But most people who would have read it would probably have thought it was a cultist action.
What impact is the demolition exercise likely to have on the standard of education in the university?
You need to see what the Army Children School in Port Harcourt looked like before the beautification exercise which the state government undertook there. It is then you can really appreciate its new look. You now see beautiful things where you had ugly things, where we had all those makeshift buildings, where we had illegal structures and toilets and everything. This is exactly what His Excellency, Governor Peter Odili wants to put in place in the next ten months at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology which will definitely lead to a marked improvement in the standard of education delivery in the university.
I have learnt that the 102 students who were recently awarded full scholarship by Rivers State Government to study in Russia are badly in need of laptops. Don't you think the state government need to quickly come to their assistance?
Computers are very essential to present-day education. I will contact the university and if they say it is an essential component for them, then we will do a proposal to the governor and I'm sure he will approve it. Those laptops are very cheap overseas. I know that the government is packaging allowance for them to go to holiday resort so that they can relax and then see the beauty of the country.
What arrangement is the government putting in place that will make the incomingJuly 24, 2006 government to sustain the scholarship?
By January next year, we will contact the university to know how much is the education of the 102 students going to cost us for the rest of their academic programme. Then, that money will be put in a dedicated account for those students and it will be so spelt out. So, whether Dr. Odili is there or not, they already have funds to see them through. It may be interesting to you to know that His Excellency, Dr. Odili has approved additional scholarship for 60 students of Rivers State origin for overseas training. We are working on it now. They are going by September this year and we are targeting Malaysia where they have UK and American universities. And it is 20 for Calabaris, 20 for Andonis and 20 for Okrikas. So, these are the specific scholarship announced just a few weeks ago. They are to study oil and gas, environmental studies and engineering.