Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto state, has assured that the proposed upgrade of Shehu Shagari College of Education Sokoto to a full-fledged university, will encourage students to stand on their own after the completion of their studies.
The governor stated this on Monday when he received an interim report of the committee set up by the state government to enhance the capacity of the present College of Education to the status of a university.
According to Tambuwal, the proposed university is envisaged to be one of the most important institutions in Nigeria, the emphasis on its promoting not only education, but education with employability, could not be over-emphasized.
He said the focus on entrepreneurship development is deliberate in the face of dearth of white collar jobs for graduates.
“So, students should be able upon graduation from the university not only to educate others but also employ themselves and others in a gainful enterprise run by them,” the governor reasoned.
He assured the committee that the executive arm of government will look at its recommendations and make sure that they were judiciously implemented.
He expressed appreciation to the committee for doing a thorough job, adding that since the existing institution had met most of the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) requirements to be a university, his administration will do whatever needed to be done and immediately apply to the NUC for the upgrade.
In his remarks, the chairman of the committee, Prof. Zayyanu Umar said the 19-member committee, which swung into action after its inauguration on January 21 2021, conducted its assignment with modesty, high sense of responsibility, integrity and commitment to the course of the education sector in the state.
He explained the methodology of the committee to include meetings, engagement of stakeholders and visits to the NUC as well as the first university of education in the country, Solarin University of Education, Ijebu Ode, Ogun state.
He said all these provided the committee with an insight on the need for graduates of the planned varsity to acquire skills that would make them self-employed after their graduation.
He further disclosed that the committee recommended some courses that were not currently offered in either Usmanu Danfodiyo University or Sokoto State University, to be taught in the proposed university in order to enable the state government build capacity of the youths and mitigate the problem of unemployment in the country.
According to him, with the facilities currently available at the College, including staff profile and NUC-standard compliance, academic activities should commence in the 2021/2022 academic session.
