The Minister of State for Education, Mr Chukwuemeka Nwajuiba, on Monday urged youths seeking higher education to go for technical education to boost manpower in the country.
Nwajuiba made this known after monitoring the National Business Certificate (NBC) and National Technical Certificate (NTC) examination at the Federal Science and Technical College (FSTC), Orozo in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NBC and NTC are examinations conducted by the National Business and Technical Examination Board (NABTEB) which is equivalent to the secondary school “O” level.
Nwajuiba said that the ministry had been dialoguing with industries for support to produce the manpower needed for the development of the country.
“We are here to monitor the NABTEB examinations. We are happy with the conduct of the examination thus far. We seem to have the safety protocols around the examinations, which means NABTEB has done a great job.
“We can see that the Federal Government has equipped our technical schools with some equipment and technical expertise to run them.
“We just showed you the NACA/ITF assistance to the ministry of education and the workshop for the equipment for any kind of technical school that we have. The technical schools are so equipped that once a child leaves any of them, he is already industry ready.
“We have been dialoguing with the industries and the industry has given us the support to produce the manpower; what we are expecting parents to do is to release their children.”
The minister, however, expressed displeasure that the equipment were not being used and called on students to subscribe to technical education to promote technological know-how and boost manpower development.
“We need students to subscribe to technical education. All of these equipment that the Federal Government has purchased amount to nothing until Nigeria accepts that technical education and technical manpower must be valued.
“We have all these things installed and nobody is here to use them,” he fumed.
Prof. Ifeoma Isiugo-Abanihe, Registrar, NABTEB, while analysing the prospects of technical education, stressed the need for the society to understand its importance to national development.
Isiugo-Abanihe said that almost 60,000 students sat for the 2020 examinations, and expressed some level of satisfaction at the conduct of the students.
“This is the best education as far as I am concerned. We have almost 60,000 students across the country. I have observed the examinations in Nsukka, Imo and now in Abuja. The examinationn has been excellent.”
Mrs Grace Kenneth, Principal, FSTC, Orozo in the FCT, said that the school had made adequate progress in technical education, adding that technical education was key to societal growth.
Source:
NAN
