Expert Harps on Capacity Devt at FSTCY’s Graduation

Uchechukwu Nnaike

The government and all well-meaning stakeholders in the education sector have been advised to focus more on human capacity development by investing massively in technical and vocational schools and centres so as to produce world-class workforce to curb the menace of youth unemployment in the country. The immediate past President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Mr. Olumide Akintayo, who gave the advice at the eighth annual speech day and prizegiving ceremony of the Federal Science and Technical College, Yaba, Lagos, regretted that the county pays little or no attention to celebrating true excellence and as such, youths are currently wasting away in employments that cannot be sustained. Akintayo, who was chairman of the occasion, said a tour of the school shows that it possesses the requisite equipment to develop vocational and technical skills in the country, but most of the equipment are outdated; he stressed that these are the kinds of institutions that corporate organisations need to help resuscitate so as to groom a new generation of youths who have something to do. Addressing the graduands in a paper titled ‘Path to Positive Success’, the guest speaker, a senior lecturer at the University of Lagos, Dr. E.O Obidiegwu, stressed that the path to positive success is not always smooth. “For you to achieve that, you must be ready for action. That you are receiving prize today is the result of taking action (burning the midnight candle). Nothing good comes so easy. Nevertheless life is all about choice. You can be a passive victim of circumstance or you can be the active hero of your own life.” She urged the graduands to try and discover their own talent, and advised them not to choose a career because their friends are choosing it. “By discovering your talent and working hard you can be the best in the vocation of your choice.” Obidiegwu said for them to achieve greatness, the qualities expected from them are self-discipline, organisation, perseverance and non-procrastination; adding that to remain great, they must possess qualities like hard work, honesty, humility and obedience. “You don’t know the future, but you know the one who holds the future and that is God. Always consult Him with prayers so that your future will be bright,” she said. In his remarks, the Principal, Rev. Chris Ugorji, who presented the report of the college’s activities for the 2015/2016 academic session, stated that the academic life and tone of the college has improved tremendously following the machineries put in place by the management to monitor the teaching and learning processes. “The implementation of the ‘Sit Down and Read’ programme has been yielding results which we believe would be reflected in the outcome of our internal and external examination results.” Among other achievements, he said the college successfully completed and commissioned the Excellence Block of three classrooms for junior secondary one students; inaugurated the new girls’ hostel built by the PTA; renovation, refurbishing and commissioning of the general staff room; and the provision of over 500 units of two-in-one classroom furniture and over 700 units of single examination desks and chairs. The principal stressed that the college is in dire need of adequate science laboratory; adequate refectory; more classrooms, accommodation and furniture; replacement of obsolete machines in the technical workshop with modern ones; training and re-training of teachers to meet the demands of advance technology, among others.