The House of Representatives Committee on Polytechnics and other Higher Technical Education has tasked Rectors of Federal Polytechnics with being innovative by introducing courses and programmes that will help utilise all potential within their catchment areas.
The Committee, chaired by Hon. Fuad Kayode Laguda, threw the charge at an oversight session with Rectors and some management staff of Federal Polytechnics Kauran-Namoda, Zamfara; Bauchi, Kaltungo in Gombe and Bali in Taraba States.
Speaking after a submission by the Rector, Federal Polytechnic Kauran-Namoda Zamfara, Jonathan Murdi, Laguda, said that as an institution in the state, it should introduce courses in geology, mining, and other related courses to help educate youths and rescue them from becoming bandits or their agents.
He said, “As we discussed earlier, we were talking about why you don’t have mining courses in your place. Because if you have mining courses, some of these gold and things they find in the soil there, they will be coming to do the test in your school, which is also a source of IGR for you.
“So things shouldn’t be under your nose, and you skip it like it’s impossible. It is the happenings of today that you would apply. That is part of what they call innovation. So please look into this”.
The chairman noted that offering such courses would address the declining student population due to insecurity in Zamfara state.
“We’ll be glad to hear that our students are not reducing; they’ve started increasing. And all this can be done by the standard you keep or give to the students. If we are producing A-list students, and by the time we start working with places and they are providing good results, you will be surprised by the multiplier effect that will bring you.
“Because the employers will always tell, look up, in my factory room, somebody that finished from Zamfara Poly that I collected, and he has done wonderfully well. I’ve collected them in two years, and they’ve been doing too well. Students will hear of this, parents will hear of this, and they’ll send their children to your school,” the lawmaker said.
