Three Federal Poly, Ilaro Students Bag Psychometrics Scholarship Award

Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan

A student of Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Ogun State, Miss Christianah Olafare, has won the N100,000 worth of scholarship award by the International Psychometrics Centre (IPC), Ibadan, for taking the overall best student in Psychometrics examination organised for polytechnic and Colleges of Education students in the country.

Olafare, a HND-I Public Administration student, defeated two other students, Mr. Ahmed Oladipupo, an ND-II Mechanical Engineering undergraduate and Emmanuel Ajibode, HND-II Marketing student, both of the same school.

A statement by the Corporate Affairs Manager of IPC, Ms. Patience Udoh, said the three students scored the same marks of 90 per cent, stating that it took the efforts of the technical team that conducted the post examination oral interview before Olafare could emerge winner.

The Rector, Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Dr. Olusegun Aluko, in his remarks, during the award presentation, said he was not surprised that three of his students came out top with the same high marks because of the high academic standard of the institution.

He said: “We are even looking forward to an opportunity where all tertiary institutions in Nigeria will write the same examination to be able to prove how good we are among the group of schools in the country, and psychometrics is in that direction and I am happy with their initiatives.

“This scholarship award will definitely encourage our students to study more especially for a course like psychometrics that is been run online, the idea that we have encouraged even before the advent of the COVID-19 pandemics.”

The Deputy Director, IPC, Mr. Timiletin Fashola, said that psychometrics as a mandatory course was approved by the federal government in 2018 for all tertiary institutions in Nigeria, stating that the implementation in the universities is slow because of incessant strike action but they would be starting very soon.

“Regarding the importance of psychometrics to students; the 21st century organisations don’t rely on certificate again, graduating with first class or second class upper does not guarantee that you will excel. The organisations have seen that they recruited first class graduates and they will not do well but those with lower grades performed wonderfully well which implies that the tendencies for graduates to perform in an organisations goes beyond certificates.

“This is what psychometrics introduces to the students. It makes them to identify their ability and what they are good at. For instance, if you studied banking and finance, it does not mean such a student will excel in banking but rather might do better as an entrepreneur.

He noted that the scholarship award program has been done in four polytechnics, Federal Polytechnic, Bida, Akwa Ibom Polytechnic, Gombe State Polytechnic and also Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, stating that in the next two months it will cover four other higher institutions.

The National President, Polytechnic Students Union, Mr. Benedict Oladere, lauded the IPC for introducing the online course to the schools’ curricular because of its positive impact in making students realise what and where they are good at, noting that it is a good component in making the right career choice.

He, however, thanked the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) and the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) for keying fully into the accreditation of the course, stating that students of polytechnics are brilliant and important to the economic growth of the country through technical education.

“What we witnessed here at Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, where three students scored the same high marks has shown that polytechnic students are brilliant and if federal government can focus more on the technical education by pumping more funds the Nigeria we are dreaming of will soon become a reality,” Oladere said.