Technical education key to industrialisation – Rector

By VINCENT UJUMADU
AWKA — Rector of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State, Professor Godwin Onu, said, yesterday, that technical education remained the key to the country’s rapid industrialisation and economic development.

Consequently, he called for more funding for the execution of capital projects that would put polytechnics on a better footing for the training of the required manpower.

Onu, while receiving officials of the Federal Ministries of Education and Finance who were in the institution to monitor the first and second quarters of the 2012 capital project execution, described Oko Polytechnic as an institution in a hurry to develop and, therefore, needed the support of the bodies.

He commended the efforts of the Federal Government to uplift the status of technical education in the country, but decried what he described as the delay in the release of funds, adding that the situation was slowing down the development of infrastructure in the polytechnic.

He said: “We are aware of government’s efforts to ensure judicious use of funds, but the delay in the release of funds for capital projects is adversely affecting the completion of vital projects.”

He informed the delegation that the polytechnic has, in the 2013 budget, planned to establish the Department of Mechatronics in its school of Engineering, which he described as a meeting point for Mechanical, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, adding that the cheapest machine for the setting up of the department costs about $US1 million.

Onu also disclosed that the institution has