Ondo State governor, Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN), on Tuesday, pushed the efforts to reposition education in the state further, when he inaugurated the four visitation panels to the state-owned tertiary institution in Akure.
Akeredolu, who said his government would not fail to take bold decisions to pursue ideas considered necessary for the development of the state, asked members of the four panels to consider their invitations to serve the state as sacred.
Besides asking the panels to proffer solutions to identified problems in the state’s tertiary institutions, the governor gave members three weeks to complete the assignments and submit their reports.
The panels, according to the governor, are to look critically into the state of compliance of the universities/polytechnic with the statutes which established them and approved programmes of study; financial management of the universities/polytechnic including subventions, grants, loans, and internally generated revenues (IGR) and determine their compliance with appropriate regulations; determine the adequacy of staff and staff development programmes of the universities/polytechnic; and determine the pattern of recruitment in accordance with extant statutory provisions, among others.
Akeredolu said: “There are a number of issues in these four institutions of learning which require urgent attention. I am optimistic that members of these panels will, no doubt, proffer the necessary recommendations for our administration to tackle.
“I am, consequently, soliciting the inventive contributions of these panels to solve, remove totally or reduce to an insignificant dent, the challenges militating against the sector in our state.”
He added that the issue of education for the development of any society was too serious to be subjected to the vagaries of political consideration.
The visitation panel to Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, is chaired by Dr. Goke Adegoroye. Prof. Olumide Tewe chairs the panel for the Ondo State University of Science and Technology, Okitipupa. The panel to University of Medical Sciences, Ondo, is chaired by Prof. Ayo Arowojolu, while Prof. Sunday Adewale chairs the visitation panel for Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo.
The governor asked the four panels to be courageous while discharging assigned responsibilities.
He said: “We must all agree to work together for the benefit of our society. I, therefore, charge you to approach this important duty as courageously as possible. We must take it as part of our contributions to the development of the state.
“The education of our citizens must be purposeful if the anticipated end is capacity building. The embarrassing infrastructural deficit in the state is an eloquent testimony to the yawning gap existing between a mere process of certification, that is, the sorry state of our education, which culminates in mass production of graduates who are perpetually dependent, and functional education which addresses challenges of development.
“We cannot continue to promote specious policies for the sake of politics. Our society has been at the receiving end of the negative impact of desultory decisions taken to assuage extraneous interests other than serve the real purpose of education. It is, therefore, incumbent on us all to grab this opportunity to turn things around for the sake of the current generation and posterity.”
Akeredolu, however, said that the inauguration of the panels was not aimed at punishing individuals, adding that it was meant to lead to a realistic change in the education sector.
The Chairman of the Visitation Panel to Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Dr Goke Adegoroye responded on behalf of all the panels assured that members will justify the confidence reposed in them.
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