On the 6th of March 2021, history was made in Gombe State, when the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the establishment of Pen Resource University (PRU) in Gombe State.
With this development, PRU became the second private university in the North-East, the first being the American University of Nigeria located in Adamawa State.
All preparations for the smooth take off of the school were finalized about a year ago. The founders of the school have already put up state-of-the-art facilities in the realms of the 21st century technology-backed instruction.
Amazingly, the team members comprised seasoned administrators and young academics who have distinguished themselves across all facets of education. This, therefore, was not surprising when the National Universities Commisdion (NUC) visitation team gave the school a swift and superb pass mark during inspection in order to expedite action.
No wonder, the FEC again, on Wednesday, 6th April, 2022 have approval for the issuance of provisional licence for the establishment of the private university, among 12 others.
PRU provides an avenue for the people of Gombe, and the North-East in general, to have access to some high-demand courses, Cyber Security, Computer Science and Software Engineering, considering the fact that disciplines like artificial intelligence and robotics have gradually become the engine room ostensibly driving innovative development in all ramifications of science and technology.
Without any doubt, the new school signals a new dawn in the education sector because it succeeds in positioning Gombe as a strong education investment destination in a region with horrible education indices, particularly low school enrollment rate and a staggering number of out-of-school children.
The people of Gombe and, indeed, the North-East would find the school very savory for learning given its propensity to provide an avenue to interact with world class tutors— mostly foreign trained— drawn from across the nook and cranny of Nigeria in order to impart knowledge.
The proprietor of the the new university, Dr. Adamu Jauro, deserves some praise for his unrivaled passion towards education in Gombe. It is a known fact that Pen Resource already has a number of schools spanning the Nursery to Secondary education in Gombe. Their products have been doing wonders not only in Gombe but the nation at large. Just of recent, one of its students emerged the best in a nationwide scientific competition— beating students from such states as Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna and Rivers.
The proprietor, consequently, planned the establishment of the university in order to continue to harness the talent of your young ones to make them useful members of the society.
The North-East subregion needs more of such investments in Gombe in order to close the wide education gap that currently exists there.
El-Bonga writes from Abuja
