Over 5000 technicians to be trained yearly in Edo

 EDO State Governor, Godwin Obaseki has said the state’s newly rebuilt technical college will train over 5,000 technicians yearly upon completion.

    Mr Obaseki, who was on a tour of facilities at Government Science and Technical College (GSTC) Phase 2, in Benin City, at the weekend, said his government was committed to transforming the education sector and ensuring the right atmosphere for human capital development.

The governor noted: “With what we have now, we can admit 1,500 students but by the time we finish the refurbishment, we will be able to take up to 3,500 students. When we double with the evening classes for apprentices, we will be able to train up to 5,000 people on technical subjects every year,” he said.

 “Our teachers have to be trained and retrained to fit into the system that we are creating. We are lucky as the federal government has approved that the former College of Education in Ekiadolor be transformed into the Federal College of Technical Education to train teachers who will teach in technical schools.   This will ensure that we have adequate manpower to man all the technical schools that we are creating in the State.

“This project is dear to our heart as an administration. We want to build and rebuild technical education in the State as a means of ensuring that people find jobs when they finish school.

“We have built a new school driven by technology. We have also refurbished the old one donated by the Canadian Government almost 45 years ago. The facility was not properly maintained and some of its facilities were collapsing. We are refurbishing these facilities, using the process to teach the students how to work on buildings.”

“We have up to 10 workshops and laboratories; there will be automobile engineering, carpentry, plumbing and electrical engineering; all the equipment to be used have been ordered and are on the ground,” the governor added.

“The first in the series of workshops will be ready in June, while all others will be ready by September, 2021, and more students will be admitted,” he assured.

He recalled  that  Edo State had by restructuring, metamorphosed College of Agriculture (Iguoriakhi) and Agricultural Technology (Agenebode) to one unique College of Agriculture and Natural Resources with expanded, widened and deepened scope e of academic, training, research and integrated extension services.

The new college has three schools, namely: School of Agricultural Technology and Engineering at Iguoriakhi, which doubles as the main campus and administrative headquarters of the College; School of Aquaculture and Marine Technology, located at Agenebode and the School of Forestry and Environmental Technology being located at Uromi.