EATECH Donates  Laboratories to A’ Ibom School 

Esteem Schools Abak, Akwa Ibom State, has received a significant boost to its academic infrastructure, thanks to the generosity of Engineering Automation Technology Limited (EATECH), an indigenous oil and gas firm. 

The company donated cutting-edge, built, and furnished chemistry, physics, and biology laboratories to the school as part of its corporate social Responsibility (CSR) initiative in its host Akwa Ibom State. 

Commenting,  Managing Director/CEO of EATECH, Dr. Emmanuel Okon, emphasised the importance of knowledge in addressing societal challenges, particularly in science and technology fields. 

“The challenge to society is ignorance, and the solution to this is knowledge,” he said, urging students to utilise the facilities and maintain them for future generations. 

Okon made a further commitment to set up a fully equipped Computer-Based Test (CBT) Centre to enable the school to host related CBTs and enhance information and communication technology (ICT) skills, including coding, robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and programming, among others. He said the company would also train staff and students on the basic applications of ICT tools.

In 2023, EATECH had invested over N35 million in the rehabilitation and equipment of the Biology and Chemistry laboratories of St. Mary’s Senior Science College, Ediene-Abak. 

Okon, while handing over the laboratories to the school, said the investment was part of the company’s CSR.  He recalled visiting the two laboratories of the foremost science college and finding them dilapidated, abandoned, and overtaken by weeds and rodents. 

He particularly flayed the situation where science students have to be shuffled through schools without the requisite laboratories for their hands-on practicals to bring them up to par with their contemporaries around the world. 

Okon lamented this rot, urging private sector investors to step in and boost the quality of infrastructure and manpower in these schools. The EATECH boss reinstated the commitment of his company to undertaking transformative projects in the academic sector, especially in science and technology fields. 

“These interventions in the most modern laboratories that could be found anywhere in the world are our little contribution, as part of our CSR, in closing these infrastructure gaps in these schools and creating the right teaching and learning environment for teachers and students,” he said.