A bill to establish the Federal Polytechnic Onueke, Ebonyi State in the South Eastern Nigeria which was sponsored by Senator Kenneth Emeka Eze has passed a second reading in the Senate on Tuesday.
Leading the general principles of the bill, Eze explained that the proposed institution would provide full-time courses in information and communications technology and applied sciences among other courses.
He said the bill was laid on the floor of the Senate for the first time on Tuesday, 1st August 2023, stating that the Polytechnic holds significant potential in advancing human capital development and providing an assured future for the youth in Nigeria, and Ebonyi Central in particular.
He stressed the importance of education for a prosperous and progressive society, noting that a Polytechnic provides technical education, hence, it would empower individuals, nurture talents, and provide a solid foundation for economic development, while acknowledging what the government has been doing in that regard.
He said: “We must acknowledge the tremendous efforts made by the government in expanding access to education for all Nigerians, particularly at the tertiary level.
“However, there is still more work to be done, especially in addressing the skill-based educational needs of under-served regions.
“Before now, the quest to acquire higher educational certificates was borne out of the sole need for a white-collar job. Perhaps, it worked in the past but times have changed and our country needs to move with the global trend.
“Globally, tertiary education is tailored to the skills-set of individuals and to solve societal problems. As a reliable instrument for the economic re-engineering of nations, Polytechnics are renowned for providing practical and skill-based education, specializing in technical disciplines, ICT and applied sciences which basically admits nations into the global community driven by skills and technology acquisition.
The secret to the economic success and prosperity of nations such as China, India, Korea, Singapore and Brazil could be traced to huge investments in technological skills development.
Senator Jimoh Ibrahim in his contribution lauded the lawmaker for his commitment to a bill that has to do with education, insisting that there is no alternative to education if poverty must be tackled.
He opined that the Senate should come up with a magnanimous bill calling for the establishment of Polytechnics in each of the Senatorial District given the importance of technical education.
The former governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu after his contribution highlighting the importance of technical education for the upcoming youths, commended the sponsor of the bill for his foresight and called on other lawmakers to support the bill.
The Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau who presided over the plenary commended the sponsor and after subjecting the bill to votes, referred it to the Senate Committee on Tertiary Education and reverted their report to the Committee of the whole in two weeks.
Bill to establish Federal Polytechnic Onueke in Ebonyi passes second reading
