Gov. Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State on Monday reiterated his administration’s commitment towards encouraging students to be able to stand on their own after the completion of their studies.
Tambuwal, according to a statement by Muhammad Bello, his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, made the pledge when he received an interim report of a committee set up by the state government to enhance the upgrading of the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, to a university.
The governor said the plan for the proposed upgrade of the College to a full-fledged university is to encourage students to be able to stand on their own after the completion of their studies.
According to him, considering that the proposed university is envisaged to be one of the most important institutions in Nigeria, “the emphasis will be on promoting not only education, but also education with employability cannot be over-emphasized.
“Our focus on entrepreneurship development is deliberate in the face of the dearth of white collar jobs for graduates.
“This is in order for the students to be able, upon graduation from the university, not only to educate others but also employ themselves and others in a gainful enterprise run by them,” he said.
Tambuwal assured the committee that the executive arm of government will look at its recommendations and make sure that they are judiciously implemented.
Expressing appreciation to the committee for doing a thorough job and the fact that the existing institution has met most of the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) requirements to be a university, the governor said his administration will do whatever needs to be done and immediately apply for the upgrade.
In his remarks, the chairman of the committee, Prof. Zayyanu Umar, said the 19-member committee which swung into action after its inauguration on January 21, conducted its assignment with modesty, a high sense of responsibility, integrity and commitment to the course of the education sector in the state.
He said in doing its job, the committee held meetings, engaged stakeholders and visited the NUC as well as the Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijebu Ode, Ogun state, the first university of education in the country.
He said all these provided the committee with an insight on the need for graduates of the proposed university to acquire skills that would make them self employed after their graduation.
For this purpose, he explained that the committee recommended some courses not currently offered in either the Usmanu Danfodiyo University or the Sokoto State University to be taught in the proposed university in order to enable the state government build capacity of the youths and mitigate the problem of unemployment in the country.
According to him, with the facilities currently available at the College, targeted for upgrade SSCOE, staffing profile and NUC-standard compliance, academic activities should commence in the 2021/2022 academic session. (NAN)
