The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has said his administration is making steady progress with the revamp of Government Science and Technical College (GSTC) with the completion of two new classroom blocks with workshops that will accommodate 800 students.
The governor who said this during an inspection tour of the College in Benin City, Edo State capital, maintained that the GSTC will host a production hub to spur industrialisation in the axis.
He noted that the commercial production hub will serve as a location for design and production of machines so as to create opportunities for students to work with those in the industry and translate what they learn to the real world.
“We have now finished building two new blocks with workshops that will accommodate about 800 students. We now need to move to the old blocks and begin to make them more modern. We are also rebuilding the electrical, mechanical and carpentry workshops. We are introducing plumbing and other trades.”
Obaseki added that the state government is in talks with foreign partners for exchange programmes which will make provision for experts to train teachers on technical subjects.
“We need more teachers that can teach technical subjects and we need to train them. We are considering different options as we are talking to foreign partners to provide technical support and assistance on how to bring people who have done this before to accelerate the training of our teachers,” the governor said.
He explained that the state government was restructuring the teachers’ training programme which will allow the state to have one College of Education with three campuses with specialities in various aspects of teaching.
“The campus in Abudu will focus on training teachers for early, basic education and children with special needs; the College at Igueben Campus will focus on training teachers on secondary schools and technical subjects while the Afuze Campus will focus on training teachers on physical, sporting education and specialised programme,” he noted.
Obaseki said, “We are working with several bodies particularly countries in the European Union (EU) as we need their support in executing projects of this nature and to help us deal with human trafficking and curtail irregular migration.”
Team Lead, Government Science and Technical College Benin Rehabilitation Programme, Giles Omezi, expressed delight that the 2019/2020 academic session for students of the school commenced on Monday, September 16, 2019, adding that the National Board for Technical Education is pleased with the project.
