By Saheed Ibrahim

After sixteen years of relentless endeavours to attain accreditation for its technical colleges, the Ondo State Government is now buoyant with optimism.

This renewed hope stems from a successful week-long visitation and hosting of an accreditation team from the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) from Kaduna, Kaduna State to inspect the technical colleges in the state.

Speaking, the State Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Mr Laolu Akindolire, represented by his Special Adviser on Admin, Prince Lekan Adeshida, expressed confidence that the state would meet the prescribed requirements of the accreditation, as the government was leaving no stone unturned to promote technical education in the state.

While appreciating the team for doing their jobs conscientiously, he urged all to put all hands on deck to achieve the feat, adding that the state government was introducing entrepreneurial skills to schools across the state to make the youths employers of labour rather than job seekers.

Addressing the team, the Administrative Secretary of the State Board for Adult, Technical and Vocational Education (BATVE), Mrs Christie Adelaye, expressed delight that the state was lucky this time around over the development, as the last exercise was carried out in the year 2018.

She stated that despite the high capital flight of running technical education in the country, Governor Aiyedatiwa-led administration has shown keen interest in fostering it.

“Apart from the approval of this accreditation exercise, two modern Technical Colleges are also in the pipeline to be built for the state by the Government and the sum of one billion naira has been appropriated in the year 2023 budget estimates for capital projects in the technical colleges, which shall soon be implemented by God’s grace,” she added.

 Adelaye, however, sought the support of the board for the sustainability of technical colleges as three out of six private technical colleges in the state have been converted to secondary schools in the quest to make profits.

Earlier, the team leader, Bashir Datti, emphasized the need to uphold the standard of technical education in the country by creating a very conducive environment for teaching and learning, stressing that skills acquisition learning centres must also be situated in the schools.

He called on parents to ensure their children are equipped with technical skills as the era of searching for white-collar jobs was over.

 While praising the state for the facilities put in place in the colleges visited, Datti said the team report would be sent to the board to make a decision.